July 21, 2014

Gülen lawyers file complaint against prosecutors over wrongful probe

Lawyers representing Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen have filed a complaint against two İstanbul prosecutors who are conducting an investigation into their client, accusing them of violating procedural rules in the manner the probe is being conducted.

Police chief says Hizmet operation to come before Eid

Former head of the İstanbul Police Department's financial crimes unit Yakup Saygılı has said he has heard rumors that the Justice and Development (AK Party) government is planning to launch an operation against members of the Hizmet movement before the Eid al-Fitr, which will begin on July 28.

PM Erdoğan confesses to creating ‘super judges' for anti-Hizmet plot

Remarks by the prime minister regarding plans to assign “super judges” to tackle a looming operation against the faith-based Hizmet movement have led legal experts to comment that the remarks are indeed a confession that the prime minister and his government have been working on a plan to turn the Turkish legal system upside down to punish the movement.

Plan to vilify Hizmet for cold cases gears up

Laying responsibility for unsolved criminal cases on the Hizmet movement is picking up pace; the most recent example of this came on Monday, when former National Police Department Intelligence Unit head Sabri Uzun accused former İstanbul Police Department Intelligence Bureau chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer of hiding intelligence reports regarding an assassination plot on Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.

RTÜK fines Samanyolu for news about boy named after Gülen

The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) fined Samanyolu TV on Sunday for running a news story about a student named Fethullah Gülen who prepared for the Transition to Higher Education Examination (YGS) with the Hizmet-affiliated Körfez University Preparation School in İzmir.

This blatant distortion is too much

Ekrem Dumanlı

Last week, I participated in a TV program that was aired on Bugün TV. The first agenda item of the program was Israel's attacks on Gaza. I was asked, "Do you condemn it?" I said that I condemned it and tried to explain the horrible consequences of shelling people during the holy month of Ramadan. I further noted that we need to adopt a broader perspective and that this problem cannot be settled simply with condemnations, protests and harsh statements. I indicated that Turkey's prestige has been declining in the international arena and that its ties with the US and the EU have weakened; it cannot exert pressure on Israel because it does not have direct diplomatic contact, and it cannot press Israel because its ties with the Arab world, including Egypt, are not good...

SGK official asks for Parliament help to counter ‘parallel' claims

A department chief in the Manisa branch of the Social Security Institution (SGK) has submitted a complaint to Parliament's Petition Commission claiming that he has been accused of being a member of the “parallel structure” at his workplace and as a result, has been subjected to unfair treatment.