Deputy PM acknowledges witch-hunt against Gulen Movement

Deputy Prime Minister Tuğrul Türkeş acknowledged that Gulen Movement has being accused for each and every wrongdoing in Turkey, saying that witch-hunt is underway for sympathizers of the movement.

“When the shock absorber of your car is broken, they put blame on people with ties to FETO [an abbreviation the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan coined to describe Gülen Movement],” Türkeş said.

Speaking to CNN Türk the other day, Türkeş denied allegations that his father and the former head of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Alparslan Türkeş was poisoned by a family member with ties to Gulen Movement.

Highlighting that the corpse of his father was thoroughly examined to find any evidence that might correct such possibilities, Türkeş said no such evidence has been found so far.

“This is being turned into a witch-hunt,” Türkeş said hinting at discriminatory discourse that is often used by top government officials.

Ever since the government and Erdoğan accused Gülen Movement of masterminding the July 15 coup attempt, pro-government circles has voiced claims that the movement was behind recent unidentified murders across the country, the breakdown in peace process with Kurdish minority, Gezi protests and Turkish military’s bombing of 34 Kurdish civilians in Uludere district.

The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt, condemning any intervention into democratically-elected administrations.

Some analysts even argued that recent downing of Russian warplane by Turkish pilot was a plot by a member of Gulen Movement.

As the government accuses the movement of attempting a coup, some 80,000 people have been sacked from state institutions over their alleged links to the movement since July 15.

30,000 people including journalists, judges, police and prosecutors have been detained with 15,000 of them being arrested.

Published on Turkey Purge, 14 August 2016, Sunday