March 7, 2014

Group close to Islamic scholar Gülen denies Turkish PM's claims

A journalist association affiliated with the movement of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has issued a press statement accusing the prime minister of targeting the Hizmet movement instead of fighting corruption.

The demise of Turkish democracy

Robert Ellis*

Events in Turkey since Dec. 17, 2013, are not a mere bump in the road but constitute a major setback for Turkish democracy.

Kimse Yok Mu cheers up Panamanian Orphans

The international charity foundation Kimse Yok Mu carried out a project for the Panamanian orphan’s benefit. The foundation built an additional facility for an orphanage in a far-flung corner of the country. The new facility came as a fresh air to the orphans living in squeezed rooms due to lack of space and beds.

Erdogan's endless legitimacy crisis

Kadri Gürsel

Though Dec. 17, 2013, will go down in history as the day that a "grand corruption and bribery operation" targeting the government was launched, it was also the day that the conflict between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Gulen movement, a US-based faith organization, became an all-out war. In the 2½ months since, the damage inflicted on the AKP and its leader, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, can be simply summarized: loss of legitimacy. Had Erdogan and his government not blocked the investigating prosecutors — in breach of the constitution — the legitimate battlefield for the comprehensive accumulation of corruption and bribery files would have been the judicial process. Yet, since the government has barricaded the route to the judicial proceedings, evidentiary material based on voice recordings — which should have been cited in indictments — is being revealed through social media.