Moral damage

Ali Bulaç

Turkey has been experiencing shockwaves from the debate over the graft and bribery investigation and coup charges.

Prominent columnist Bağdat slams persecution of Hizmet

Popular daily columnist Hayko Bağdat called for a halt of the witch hunt against Hizmet and expressed the need for tolerance for all social groups in Turkey.

The Persecution of the Hizmet (Gülen) Movement in Turkey: A Chronicle

Since the outbreak of the corruption scandal in Turkey in December 2013, Prime Minister and then President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government have been particularly targeting the Hizmet (Gülen) movement. According to Erdogan and his lieutenants, the alleged charges brought forward by Istanbul prosecutors on December 17 and 25, 2013, were in fact insidious attempts to topple the AKP government that were orchestrated by Hizmet sympathizers and affiliates in the Turkish state and bureaucracy, including judiciary and police forces. The Hizmet movement, which suddenly found itself on the defensive, has been vehemently denying these allegations, calling them baseless accusations serving to cover up the corruption charges. While the corruption cases were effectively rendered obsolete through a series of laws and executive interventions aimed at courts, the attacks on Hizmet continue in full force, evolving recently from rhetoric to action.

Mufti's office attempts to evict educational group from Antalya center

The office of the mufti in the Muratpaşa district of the southern province of Antalya issued an order on Monday evicting a group affiliated with the Hizmet movement from its educational center, a building it has the legal right to use until 2017.