Dangerous play by Erdoğan

Vahap Uysal*

At 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3, police raided the headquarters of Bank Asya in İstanbul, Turkey, to help the takeover of the bank by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF). Bank Asya is an Islamic bank largely run by businessmen associated with Mr. Fethullah Gülen, an influential Islamic scholar with a large following in Turkey.

Unlawful intervention in Bank Asya to backfire on markets, experts warn

A midnight police raid on the headquarters of Turkey's largest Islamic bank after a banking watchdog's decision to take over the bank's management on Tuesday lacks legal grounds and will likely stir further speculation in financial markets, pundits warned on Wednesday.

US urges Turkey to uphold rule of law in Bank Asya case

The United State has urged the Turkish government to uphold the rule of law in dealing with Turkey's biggest Islamic lender Bank Asya, whose management was taken over by a state insurance fund on Tuesday.

Gov’t-backed Bank Asya decision sparks anger, likely to face int’l court

The decision to take over control of Turkey's largest Islamic lender, Bank Asya, has drawn much public ire, with many emphasizing the deteriorating image of the banking industry amid the worsening investment environment and arguing that the decision is likely to be reversed in both local and in international courts.

Opposition lashes out at gov’t for Bank Asya operation, says economy will suffer

Opposition parties have blasted the takeover of the management of Bank Asya by Turkey's state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), widely described as a politically motivated move designed to intimidate, warning that the government-orchestrated crackdown will inflict a heavy toll on the economy.

Bank Asya lawyer says ‘seizure’ out of question, bank to continue operations

One of the lawyers of Bank Asya has denied that the state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) seized the Islamic lender, stressing that it only made changes in Bank Asya's management that will not affect the bank's operations.

General manager says Bank Asya to continue operations, vows legal fight

Bank Asya General Manager Ahmet Beyaz, who was among nine members of the bank's executive board removed by state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) as part of a political operation targeting the institution, has said the bank will take legal action against the TMSF move, which he also says will not affect the bank's operations.

Police prevent certain media outlets from entering Bank Asya

After the Savings Deposits Insurance Fund (TMSF) took over 63 percent of Bank Asya's privileged shares late on Tuesday, police officers prevented certain media outlets that arrived at the scene to cover the story from entering the Bank Asya building, while others were allowed to enter.

Harsh criticisms pour in as TMSF takes control of board at Bank Asya

Turkey's state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) has taken over management control of 63 percent of the privileged shares in Bank Asya, Turkey's biggest Islamic lender, as part of a government-orchestrated crackdown on institutions affiliated with the Gülen movement (Hizmet movement).

Turkish state fund takes over Bank Asya’s management, claims lack of transparency

Turkey's state-run Savings Deposits Insurance Fund (TMSF) has taken over most of Bank Asya's management, Turkey's biggest Islamic lender, as part of the government-orchestrated crackdown on institutions affiliated with the Gülen movement.

Albayrak: Revoking Gülen’s passport is not fit for a state ruled by law

Nurullah Albayrak, the legal representative of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen in Turkey, has said that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government claims of having revoked Gülen's passport do not comply with the principles of a state ruled by law.

Fethullah Gulen: Turkey’s Eroding Democracy

Fethullah Gulen

SAYLORSBURG, Pa. — It is deeply disappointing to see what has become of Turkey in the last few years. Not long ago, it was the envy of Muslim-majority countries: a viable candidate for the European Union on its path to becoming a functioning democracy that upholds universal human rights, gender equality, the rule of law and the rights of Kurdish and non-Muslim citizens. This historic opportunity now appears to have been squandered as Turkey’s ruling party, known as the A.K.P., reverses that progress and clamps down on civil society, media, the judiciary and free enterprise.

Gülen says Turkey’s democracy eroding under AK Party rule

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has said Turkey, which was not long ago the envy of Muslim-majority countries with its bid to become an EU member and dedication to being a functioning democracy, is reversing progress and clamping down on civil society, the media, the judiciary and free enterprise under the rule of the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

Gülen’s lawyer disputes Anadolu article, saying if true Turkish authorities lied to US

Nurullah Albayrak, the legal representative of Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic scholar in self-imposed exile in the US, released a brief statement on Tuesday regarding an article in Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency reporting that Turkish authorities have informed the US that Gülen's passport has been revoked.

How big is the ’parallel structure’?

Duygun Yarsuvat, the president of Galatasaray Sports Club, recently held the "parallel structure" responsible for the club's being about to go bankrupt by defaulting its debts. You may see his claims as individual conjectures, but his claims weren't restricted to his club only. He also claimed that Fenerbahçe Sports Club, too, is facing pressures from the "parallel structure." He alleged that the parallel structure threatened Aziz Yıldırım of Fenerbahçe to pay $50 million. Of course, Yıldırım refuted the claims, making all other claims by Yarsuvat suspicious.

Pro-gov’t circles intensify hypocritical propaganda targeting Gülen movement

The pro-government media and Justice and Development Party (AK Party) circles continue to use hypocritical language against the faith-based Gülen movement -- popularly known as the Hizmet movement -- inspired by the views of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, in propaganda both abroad and at home.

Davos, Oslo, Cizre, Ergenekon, Sledgehammer, Khomeini and MOSSAD

Faruk Mercan

You are right to ask, “What kind of relationship can there be among these seven words?” Every sane person has the right to ask such a question.

Turkish deputy PM appalled by reporter’s awkward Gülen question

With the eyes open wide, Turkish deputy prime minister was shocked and appalled by a reporter's question on Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen during a bi-weekly news briefing on Monday.

Turkey, quo vadis?

Felix Kaiza*

Indigenous African Knowledge has it that the ear that will go deaf does not respond to medicine. This seems to sum up well the recurrent trend of events in the running of Turkish affairs under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The world says, "Your king is naked"

Ali H. Aslan

The reports issued last week by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Freedom House attest to the fact that Ankara's widespread anti-democratic practices in 2014 have significantly undermined Turkey's international position and image.

Ex-military intel chief: MİT prepared Tahşiyeciler report long before Gülen’s speech

The former intelligence director of the Turkish General Staff, Lt. Gen. İsmail Hakkı Pekin, has said the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) has kept the al-Qaeda-linked Tahşiyeciler group under observation since 2004 and sent a report to the police intelligence department as early as February 2008 -- before a speech denouncing the group by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen in 2009 which was used as evidence for his arrest warrant.

The irrationality of demanding Turkish schools abroad be shut down

Sevgi Kuru Açıkgöz

Since last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been constantly "advising" his foreign counterparts to shut down the Hizmet schools in their countries.

Education Minister Avcı: the most unfortunate member of the Cabinet

Ali Aslan Kılıç

The graft and bribery scandal that went public on Dec. 17, 2013 continues to undermine the prestige of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

Erdoğan’s baseless claim of Mossad-Gülen ties draws ire

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's accusation that the Gülen movement is cooperating with Israel's intelligence agency without providing any evidence is yet another example of his feeling free to slander as he pleases, although the president is known, when confronted with an accusation, to describe those who fail to prove their claims as dishonorable.

Measures against Turkish schools worse than the 90s postmodern coup

The former Welfare Party delegate Gürcan Dağdaş calls the President Erdoğan-backed Ministry of Education's plan to close Turkish schools “a laughable attempt that lacks soul."

EFJ representative visits Zaman, says journalists not arrested in democratic countries

Barry White, the Britain-based National Union of Journalists (NUJ) representative of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), recently visited the headquarters of the Zaman daily -- which was raided on Dec. 14 as part of a government-backed media crackdown -- and said that journalists are not arrested for doing their job in democratic countries.

Critics labeled traitors in Erdoğan’s ‘New Turkey’

Almost no day passes in the “New Turkey” without individuals, organizations or groups that criticize the policies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and its former leader and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or just do not publicly support them being labeled as “traitors” by the government and the president.

Kimse Yok Mu volunteers help restore eyesight to African cataract patients

Volunteers of Kimse Yok Mu Foundation’s (KYM) Konya chapter offered hope to some 150 cataract patients across the African continent, through their donations.

Malian first lady commends local Turkish schools

Mali’s first lady Aminata Keita recently received a delegation from the local Horizon Turkish School, Mali Time to Help Foundation and Galaxy Dialogue and Cultural Center, at the presidential palace.

Erdoğan’s fight against education in Africa

İhsan Yılmaz

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited a few African nations, among them Somalia and Ethiopia. When looking at his media mouthpieces' coverage of the trip and his declarations, it seems the primary reason of his trip was to “tell” the African nations to close schools that were established by civil society groups and private companies affiliated with the Hizmet movement. He told them that the staff of these schools are foreign agents and, similar to what they did in Turkey, they could stage a coup in these African nations! Erdoğan's solution was simple: Close the schools and the Turkish state will open new ones.

That Erdogan’s War With Education In Africa

Vincent Kanayo

I was shocked last Thursday when I heard that the President Erdogan, was in Ethiopia to demand that his counterpart in that country should close Turkish schools. The schools, it would turn out, are owned by affiliated of Cleric Fethullah Gulen, his former ally but now greatest adversary. The president had vowed to financially strangulate Gulen and his Hizmet Movement followers for allegedly incriminating him in a corruption scandal in 2013. So since education is one big area the Movement engages in, Erdogan hopes to attack that base in Africa.

US assures private schools are under legal protection against closure

Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC) Executive Director Mark Gibb has said no one, not even President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has the authority to close down Turkish schools in the US in response to the Turkish government's bid to close down schools opened by entrepreneurs affiliated with the faith-based Gülen movement, which is also known as the Hizmet movement.

Foreign students express bewilderment over gov’t bid to close Turkish schools

Foreign students who are graduates of schools opened by Turkish entrepreneurs affiliated with the Gülen movement (also called the Hizmet movement) all around the world, have expressed bewilderment over the government's plan to shut down the schools, saying that the Turkish government is making a grave mistake in targeting these schools as they are renowned and praised for their high-quality education by foreigners.

Gülen has strongly rejected comparison to Iran's Khomeini time and again

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ's recently rehashed allegations that Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen planned to return from the US to Turkey in a way similar to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini are decades-old discredited claims that have been refuted time and again by Gülen himself in his published statements.

Human Rights Watch slams Turkish government for "authoritarian drift"

“Victory at the polls is no excuse for the Turkish government and President Erdoğan to roll back the reforms of the past decade and erode the institutions that make Turkey a democracy.”

UN takes up rights abuses by Turkey

Abdullah Bozkurt

Turkey's deplorable human rights record, particularly regarding the terrible situation of press freedoms and a partisan judiciary, was registered at the highest level this week when many of the 193 UN member states raised serious concerns about the backslide that Turkey has been experiencing under the authoritarian regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on rights and freedoms.

Erdoğan’s African mission and dismantling Turkish schools

Anwar Alam*

How do Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's repeated calls for the closure of Turkish schools located on the African continent, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, serve Turkish national interests? It appears that in his fight against a “parallel structure,” which he equates with institutions and people inspired by the faith-based Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement, the current Turkish president is losing a sense of direction. He is guided by a myopic vision and ego, which ultimately will compromise core Turkish national interests.

Reactions snowball against attempts to close down int’l Turkish schools

Efforts by the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to close down Turkish schools opened by Turkish entrepreneurs affiliated with the faith-based Gülen movement (also called the Hizmet movement) around the world have been met with a growing reaction from many segments of society that highlight the schools' quality education and contributions to the spread of Turkish culture.

Volunteer teachers saddened by efforts to close Turkish schools

Volunteers teachers, most of whom left behind a better life in Turkey with the hope of promoting universal values of peace, dialogue and peaceful coexistence with others through education at Turkish schools abroad, have voiced great disappointment over efforts by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to defame and eventually see these schools close.

Turkish schools and the race in philanthropy!

Erhan Başyurt

The government is in a strange effort to close down Turkish schools abroad.

Ministry imposing bans against Zaman, Cihan defends press freedom in Crimea

The Turkish Foreign Ministry, which has been criticized for the media accreditation bans it has imposed against reporters from the Zaman and Cihan news outlets, has defended press freedom in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, slamming a police raid conducted at a Tatar TV station.

Freedom House slams Erdoğan’s anti-free press stance

The heads of the US-based watchdog Freedom House have expressed concern over the state of freedom of the press in Turkey, criticizing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's role in wiping out dissident views.

Freedom House: Turkey drifting further from democratic reforms

US-based watchdog Freedom House has stated that Turkey has drifted further from democratic reforms, with former Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rising to the presidency and overseeing government attempts to quash corruption cases against his allies and associates as well as with greater interference in the media and judiciary.

Turkey harshly criticized by panel in US over press freedom

The government's recent crackdown on the media was severely criticized during a panel discussion at the National Press Club (NPC) in Washington, D.C.

Gülen’s lawyers refute justice minister’s statement likening Gülen to Iran’s Khomeini

Lawyers for Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen have said via Twitter that Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ should have provided proof to back up his statement that Gülen planned to return from the US to Turkey in a similar way to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

CHP deputy says gov’t polarizing public via media

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Bursa deputy Aykan Erdemir has said that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government has been polarizing the public via the media, warning that bad incidents such as massacres and genocides took place at the end of such polarization processes in history.

Erdoğan’s attack on civil society

Mustafa Akyol

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan was on an “Africa tour” recently, a trip that included official visits to Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. There is much to support about Turkey's presence in these countries, especially Somalia, where Erdoğan really extended a charitable hand to an impoverished nation. However his trip has a less inspiring motive as well: To convince African leaders to close down the “Turkish schools” in their countries.

Understanding the Hizmet Movement – Is Hizmet Islamist?

Uğur Kömeçoğlu

The Hizmet movement originated in Turkey and is now active in education, civil society, business and other activities in over one hundred and fifty countries worldwide. Fethullah Gülen (b.1941) is the social and the spiritual leader of the movement. The movement, which is not sponsored by a government or by a political party, is a transnational civic initiative rooted in the spiritual and humanistic tradition of Islam. One of the main goals of the Hizmet organization has been the elevation of a Muslim consciousness that is compatible with modern civil democracy and opposed to Islamism. For Gülen, Islamists are usually motivated by personal and political agendas rooted in the pursuit of worldly ambitions and power as well as by anger and hostility toward others:

Indonesian authorities request 100 more Turkish schools

Schools operated by the Pacific Nations Social and Economic Development Association (PASİAD) is the crown jewel of the Indonesian education system.

War on Gulenists undermines Turkish diplomacy

Fehim Taştekin

Bent on dismantling the “parallel state,” Ankara has embarked on a reckless campaign that threatens to undermine Turkey’s foreign relations. After corruption probes targeted Cabinet members in December 2013, it came as no surprise when the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government dismissed and reassigned thousands of police officers, prosecutors and judges in the course of fierce war on the movement of cleric Fethullah Gulen. No one would have imagined, however, that Ankara would go so far as to dismiss dozens of honorary consuls in Turkey and mount a diplomatic offensive to force the closure of Gulenist-founded schools abroad.

EU on 'parallel state' claims: ‘We don't use conspiracy theories'

What do the EU leaders think of the “parallel state” claims of the Turkish ruling party in regards to the Gülen movement (Hizmet movement)?

Will Erdoğan succeed in wresting away the reins of religion from civilian hands?

Mümtazer Türköne

I am going to talk about a situation similar to the process by which the tools of production become state possessions. These are concepts far removed not only from Western culture but from socialist ideologies as well. After all, what we are talking about here is not nationalization, but rather the transitioning of cultural arenas that are directly linked to the society -- and that the society has even created on its own -- into state property.

Erdoğan receives harsh criticism from civil society over bid to close Turkish schools

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's bid for the closure of Turkish schools affiliated with the Gülen movement in African countries has drawn harsh criticism from various segments of the society, including journalists, artists and politicians.

Gov’t ignoring court verdicts since Dec. 17 graft scandal

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, various state agencies and a number of municipalities ruled by the AK Party have ignored scores of court decisions regarding their actions since a huge corruption scandal erupted on Dec. 17, 2013.

Even a village cannot be ruled this way

Ekrem Dumanlı

A simple question: by what standards is Turkey being ruled now? Constitution? Laws? Unfortunately, neither. We have a rule based on arbitrariness and bullying. How about democratic criteria? They were long shelved. Legal criteria? They are preserved in the deep freezer. So by what standards is our country being ruled? By the wishes and desires of some privileged individuals…