June 26, 2014

Gülen's lawyer: Profiling order against Hizmet must be called off

Nurullah Albayrak, a lawyer of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, said Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor Serdar Coşkun must halt an alleged secret plot devised by the government against members of the faith-based Hizmet movement (also known as Gülen movement).

Hizmet without borders

Sevgi Akarçeşme*

Even for perpetual pessimists, it was impossible not to hope for a world where peaceful coexistence can exist while watching the finale of the 12th Language and Culture Festival, previously known as the Turkish Olympiads, in Germany.

İstanbul Fem prep school takes sign removal to court

The Fem prep school, which helps students prepare for Turkey's national university entrance exam, has filed a complaint against the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality with the İstanbul Prosecutor's Office over a signboard removed by municipal workers for no apparent reason.

The difference between Putin and Erdoğan

Orhan Kemal Cengiz

The other day I was talking to a group of foreigners. After having tried to illustrate the dark side of Turkish democracy and worsening conditions, I said, “However, Erdoğan is not the Putin of Turkey.” Maybe I should have added this: “At least not yet.”

Purge at civil bureaucracy rings alarm bells

Barçın Yinanç

“Nothing has worked since Dec. 17 [2013]. We just cannot have anything moving,” a business friend of mine told me, complaining about the ministry reshuffles, which were part of the government’s plan to “clear the state” from the parallel state, meaning those known to be followers/sympathizers or opportunists who tried to act close with the Fethullah Gülen movement.

AK Party brings on another round of poll tax

Yusuf Keleş*

As we enter this summer season, in the run-up to both Ramadan and the holiday that comes after it, it may surprise some to hear that, in fact, tax auditing becomes more intense during this period. I suppose many readers may have a better grasp of this subject -- and the news about new, urgent audits -- after having read stories about it in this newspaper. We are now all aware of the plans under way to close many schools both within Turkey and abroad, for example. As you may well guess, there is, of course, an economic aspect to these plans. And in fact, steps have already been taken in accordance with a report issued by intelligence units whose time has been completely allocated to collecting information about the Hizmet movement for the past five to six months.

PM Erdoğan is a schizophrenic, according to MHP's Büyükataman

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan most likely suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, according to Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Secretary-General İsmet Büyükataman, who also said that the prime minister often does not know what he is saying.