March 21, 2014

‘Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons'

Aydoğan Vatandaş*

After hinting that he may shut down Facebook and YouTube after the March 30 local elections, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has banned social media website Twitter in Turkey.

Gülen says ballot box is not everything in a democracy

Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who has inspired the popular civic and social movement called Hizmet, said the ballot box is not everything, urging his followers to not stick to only one but to cast their votes freely based on their personal conviction.

Erdoğan and Gül's futile fight against freedoms

İhsan Yılmaz

By using the recent Internet law signed by President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has tried to silence Twitter.

Erdogan’s fight for control is bringing down democracy in Turkey

Gülçin Özkan*

In an extraordinary move Turkey has banned Twitter, blocking access to the social networking site that has more than 10m users in the country. The ban has come just hours after the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing an election rally in the western city of Bursa, stated: “We shall root out Twitter, I don’t care what the international community says, everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic”.

Former minister disputes existence of 'parallel state'

Ertuğrul Günay, former Justice and Development Party (AK Party) minister of culture and tourism, said on Thursday that there is no “parallel state” trying to destabilize Turkey, only an illegal structure that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his inner circle have created to block corruption investigations.

Turkey's Erdogan Blocks Access to Twitter Accusing Gülen of Social Media Attacks

Divya Avasthy

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to "wipe out" Twitter from his country and imposed stiff curbs on the social media site.

German government says Gülen movement not involved in any illegal acts

The German government, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, has said an extensive assessment of the organizations and foundations of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen’s movement in Germany failed to identify any evidence of illegal activity, daily Zaman reported.

German gov't dismisses parliamentary question on Hizmet

The German federal government dismissed a parliamentary question about the faith-based Hizmet movement, underlining that the movement hasn't been involved in any illegal acts that threaten the foundations of the democratic and constitutional order in the EU country.