The Diyarbakır Bar Association on Wednesday filed a criminal complaints against pro-government Turkish journalists Cem Küçük and Fuat Uğur for “inciting crime” and “praising crime” during a program broadcast by TGRT, the TR724 news website reported.
Küçük, a staunch supporter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, suggested during a live TV program on Dec. 11 that Turkish intelligence should kill family members of jailed Gülen movement followers in order to turn the inmates into operatives for the Erdoğan regime.
Speaking along with his program partner Uğur, Küçük said Israeli intelligence agency MOSSAD had killed family members of Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian inmates to turn them into MOSSAD operatives.
Suggesting that the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) adopt similar techniques to use on followers of the Gülen movement, accused by the Turkish government of orchestrating a failed coup last year, Küçük also mentioned the names of former police chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer, former general Mehmet Partigöç and former Zaman daily owner Alaaddin Kaya, who might be useful to MİT for acquiring more information about the Gülen movement.
Küçük also criticized Turkish prosecutors for being soft on Gülen followers and said: “Now here [in Turkey] you feel pity for them [Gülen followers]. You should think of all the ways [to get rid of them].”
He also talked about excuses for the possible deaths of Gülen followers such as traffic accidents, suicides, mass suicides, death from excessive alcohol use, death from overdose, jumping off a bridge due to debt and health problems.
He said Israel would kill 15-20 Gülen followers around the world if its government was targeted by a graft probe or a coup attempt.
Turkey’s President Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) government accused Gülen movement followers, especially those in the state bureaucracy, of attempting to overthrow the government by means of a graft probe in December 2013 and a failed coup attempt in July 2016.
Immediately after the putsch the AKP the government along with Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on Dec. 12 that 55,665 people have been jailed and 234,419 passports have been revoked as part of investigations into the Gülen movement since the failed coup attempt in 2016.
The Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15, 2016 through government decrees issued as part of an ongoing state of emergency.
Director General of Public Security Selami Altınok on Dec. 12 said 22,987 police officers have been dismissed over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement.
According to Ministry of Justice data, there are currently 384 prisons with a capacity of 207,279 in Turkey; however, the total number of inmates was 228,983 as of October 2017.
The Turkish Ministry of Justice plans to build 228 new prisons with a capacity of 137,687 in the next five years. (turkishminute.com)
