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DW: Turkey’s ruling AKP party has history of links to Islamist groups

August 17, 2016 By administrator

Erdogan-Islamic-TiaThe German Interior Ministry has said that, based on information from Germany’s intelligence service, BND, it believes Turkey has “developed into a central platform of activity for Islamist groups in the Middle East.”

As an example of the “ideological affinity” between the Turkish government and Islamist groups, the ministry cited Turkey’s ties to the Palestinian group Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, as well as armed Islamist opposition groups in Syria.

With regard to Hamas, the German government takes its cue from the European Union, which has classed the group as a terrorist organization since 2003. Whereas the West was shocked when Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories, Turkey’s AKP government received a Hamas delegation in Ankara, validating them as representatives of the Palestinian people. Ankara countered Western criticism by saying that “the international community should openly convey its expectations to Hamas.”

Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal appeared to be pleased with the support from Turkey. At the time, the Islamization of Turkey’s foreign policy was just beginning to become an issue. But the reception of the Hamas delegation gave a taste of things to come. According to Turkish diplomatic sources, Erdogan again met with Mashaal this past June.

The support for Hamas reached a high point in 2010 when a Turkish organization loaded a ship with aid supplies for Palestinians and attempted to breach an Israeli sea blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israeli commandos raided the ship, killing 10 Turkish activists. A diplomatic row between Turkey and Israel ensued, and the two countries only normalized relations a few weeks ago.

Sympathies were clear

Erdogan’s goodwill toward Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is also not new. When brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi became Egypt’s first democratically elected president, he had Erdogan’s support. And when the Egyptian military toppled Morsi in 2013 in the wake of mass protests and banned the Muslim Brotherhood, Erdogan protested and spoke of a coup, accusing Israel of being involved. According to the German Interior Ministry report, Turkey continues to show solidarity by, among other things, sheltering numerous leading members of the brotherhood. Egyptian exiles are also permitted to oppose the new Egyptian government on a Turkish propaganda channel broadcast by satellite.

Less clear is the relationship between Turkey and the so-called “Islamic State” and other radical Islamic jihadist groups. Officially, the Turkish government has labeled IS a terrorist organization. At the same time, reports have repeatedly surfaced during the civil war in Syria that Ankara has bought oil from IS, supplied it with weapons and money, and allowed wounded jihadists to be treated in Turkish hospitals. On the other hand, IS has also claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Turkey.

It is clear that, for the Turkish government, any growth in power of the Kurds in Syria or Iraq along the Turkish border is suspect, because it fears the separatist tendencies of the Kurdish minority in Turkey. Since the West is supporting the Kurds in the fight against IS, and Syrian President Bashar al Assad is also an opponent of Erdogan, it stands to reason that Erdogan has, at least selectively, benefited from “Islamic State.”

Acid test: NATO

None of this is really new. But up until now, it was also not part of the public discourse. Foreign policy specialist for Germany’s Christian Democrats (CDU) Roderich Kiesewetter confirmed this recently in an interview with public broadcaster WDR: “Turkey has been supporting Hamas for 10 years now. We have discussed this matter privately with Turkey very intensively. We have also very clearly voiced our concerns that Turkey is helping to finance IS.” Kenan Engin, a Turkish-Kurdish political scientist from the University of Heidelberg told Nordwest Radio that Turkey is not just passively tolerating IS, but rather, actively supporting the organization.

So, what are the consequences? Kiesewetter sees no cause to end the EU’s refugee deal with Ankara, nor to end the dialogue with Turkey. Berlin is used to negotiating with “much more difficult countries,” such as Saudi Arabia or Iran, he said. However, Turkey does need to understand where the line is. “A visa deal with Turkey is only possible if democratic principles are upheld,” he said. He also called on NATO to address the fact that “a major member country is clearly supporting an enemy that is being fought by NATO states.”

Deputy parliamentary group chairman for the Social Democrats (SPD), Rolf Mützenich, says it’s not so much Turkey’s role that is the problem. “The yardstick will be whether this platform for activity is being used to commit acts of violence,” Mützenich told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper. CDU politician Kiesewetter has also stressed that isolating Turkey will not help improve the situation. “If Turkey were to turn its back on NATO and Europe, then we would have a giant power between Europe and Asia that would be difficult to control.”

Filed Under: News Tagged With: AKP, Gülen-linked, Islamic, link, Party

Turkey: Gulen-linked police chiefs to stand trial for Dink’s murder

April 18, 2016 By administrator

turkey.thumbFollowing a court’s approval to merge two cases, former police chiefs linked to the controversial Gülen Movement will stand side-by-side with the murder convicts of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink for the first time, the Daily Sabah reports. 
The police chiefs are accused of negligence and orchestrating a cover-up before and after the 2007 murder, which sparked public outrage.
Dink, the late editor-in-chief of Agos daily, was shot dead in front of his office in Istanbul by Ogün Samast, a 17-year-old teenager who claimed he shot Dink for his anti-Turkish views. The murder, initially considered to be committed by far-right nationalists, later turned out to be a larger plot, and several police intelligence officers were arrested for deliberately covering up intelligence on the murder plot. Moreover, several police chiefs indicted in the case are accused of links to the Gülen Movement, the umbrella term used to describe the Gülenist Terror Organization (FETÖ), which is behind two alleged coup attempts in 2013, according to prosecutors.
The suspects will appear before an Istanbul court tomorrow in the case mired with allegations of corruption after former prosecutors looking into the case claimed to cover the tracks of the Gülen-linked officers’ role in the murder. The hearings will continue for three days.
The Gulen Movement is accused of trying to shift blame for the murder onto others, including the Ergenekon, an alleged gang of generals, journalists and several prominent figures who were imprisoned after a trial conducted by Gülenist prosecutors. All defendants in the Ergenekon case were released years later, after investigations revealed they were imprisoned by prosecutors and judges close to the movement based on forged and tampered evidence.
The court had earlier accepted the indictment of 26 suspects in the Dink case. Suspects include former Intelligence Department directors of the Turkish National Police, Engin Dinç and Ramazan Akyürek, former intelligence director of the Istanbul Police, Ali Fuat Yılmazer, and intelligence officers Muhittin Zenit, Ercan Demir and Özkan Mumcu. Akyürek, who was police chief in Trabzon – the hometown of Samast and his alleged accomplice, Yasin Hayal – faces aggravated life sentence. He is charged with running a terrorist organization, homicide, forgery of official documents, destroying official documents and abuse of duty. Yılmazer faces life in prison for similar charges while other officers are subject to lesser sentences for negligence and causing manslaughter by negligence as well as hiding evidence. Akyürek was arrested in February 2015 upon orders from an Istanbul court, just one day after he was detained for questioning regarding the Dink murder, while Yılmazer was arrested earlier in a separate case involving the Gülenists.
The Supreme Court of Appeals ordered the merger of two separate cases in January, marking a legal victory for Dink’s family who sought to shed light on the officials’ role in the murder. The murder took place after Dink was warned by Istanbul authorities over his work. A local official testified to the court after the murder and countered allegations that Dink was threatened with death after running a story claiming a prominent Turkish figure was in fact an Armenian woman. The official said Dink was warned against “stirring public outrage.”
Dink, an outspoken critic of both the Turkish and Armenian stance toward the mass deaths of Armenians in 1915 – labeled as “genocide” by Armenia, a term rejected by Turkey – drew ire among hardline nationalists during his lifetime. His call for the resolution of the controversial issue led to numerous death threats before his murder. He also faced several lawsuits for “denigrating Turkishness,” an act constitutionally punishable with prison time, for his articles and editorials regarding the issue.
The Gulen Movement, led by U.S.-based retired preacher Fethullah Gülen, is accused of having infiltrated Turkey’s police departments and judiciaries as well as the higher echelons of the bureaucracy. Gülenists currently face a number of trials as the judiciary, which saw a purge of prosecutors and judges linked to the movement, stepped up efforts against FETÖ. A large number of the group’s members were arrested or wanted in multiple cases ranging from illegal wiretapping to conspiring to imprison critics of the movement, money laundering and defrauding the state. Gülen is the prime suspect in all cases as head of the FETÖ and rejects returning to Turkey from Pennsylvania where he resides while Turkey seeks to speed up his extradition process

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: chiefs, Gülen-linked, Hrant dink, police, Trial, Turkey

Turkey: Ankara police raid Gülen-linked business group TUSKON

November 6, 2015 By administrator

AA photo

AA photo

(hurriyet) Ankara police on Nov. 6 searched offices of business groups working under the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), known to have close links to the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s office ordered the search targeting TUSKON’s member associations, Anadolu Agency reported. The order was issued by the Prosecutor’s Office Bureau for Crimes against the Constitutional Order, the Cihan News Agency said.

The raids were launched as part of an investigation into the “Parallel State Structure Terror Organization/Pro-Fetullah Terror Organization” (Fetullahçı Terör Örgütü), Anadolu Agency reported. The “Pro-Fetullah Terror Organization” was first cited in a draft indictment penned by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and finalized in April. The indictment stated that it had found “concrete evidence” that sympathizers of Gülen were trying to form a “Cemaat state” parallel to the state of the Republic of Turkey.

Police also this week detained dozens of high-ranking state officials and police officers in several cities, as part of the ongoing investigation into Gülen supporters.

TUSKON was founded in 2005 in Istanbul and, as defined on its institutional webpage, is an “umbrella organization representing seven business federations, 211 business associations and over 55,000 entrepreneurs from all over Turkey.”

TUSKON has played a role in diversifying Turkey’s exports, mainly to African countries and Latin America, at a time when such a move was vital due to the crisis in the eurozone, the largest destination for Turkish exports.

It has four foreign representative offices in Brussels, Washington, Moscow and Beijing.

November/06/2015

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Ankara, Gülen-linked, Turkey, tuskon

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