Plot against Hizmet a scandal, MHP's Vural says

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) parliamentary group deputy chairman Oktay Vural said on Monday that a plot initiated by the government against the faith-based Hizmet group is a scandalous move.

Defining the initiative as a scandal carried out by the government resting on fabricated documents and evidence, Vural said, “Apparently the operation aims to eliminate and terrorize civil society through unfair accusations.”

The Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), one of the country's leading business confederations, also made a statement condemning the new wave of a defamation campaign against the Hizmet movement.

Calling on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to shed light on the accusations, Vural added: “Targeting civil society and members of a certain community, which is an approach that assumes everyone is an offender, is a hate crime. This exemplifies how a government can become ruthless. The government should release an immediate statement about the alleged documents. The prime minister should clarify whether such an operation has been conducted against the movement. Who knows what other plots were initiated against other groups?”

Issuing a written statement in relation to the plot against the movement, TUSKON criticized the government, saying the revealed documents indicate how wide the dimension of the government-led witch hunt is.

“The parliamentary question submitted by former Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin, which mentioned a secret ‘action plan' against the movement, is a source of concern for both the future of Turkey and the business world,” TUSKON noted.

The business organization also emphasized that the state in a true democracy does not involve itself in dirty activities and does not fabricate documents to present certain segments of society, who may not agree with the state apparatus, as having committed a crime.

Published on Cihan, 23 June 2014, Monday