The Gülen movement is a worldwide civic initiative rooted in the spiritual and humanistic tradition of Islam and inspired by the ideas of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric resident in the US. The movement focuses on diverse service projects that are initiated, funded and conducted by people who are motivated by Gülen’s humanitarian discourse.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the movement since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He locked up thousands, including many prosecutors, judges and police officers involved in the investigations.
Some of the claims that were part of the corruption investigations were later substantiated in New York federal court, where Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla was sentenced to 32 months for conspiring to violate US sanctions on Iran and other offenses.
Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.
Following the failed coup the Turkish government carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. More than 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, as well as 24,706 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
Such daily activities as having an account at or depositing money in a Gülen movement-affiliated bank, working at any institution linked to the movement or subscribing to certain newspapers and magazines were accepted as benchmarks for identifying and arresting alleged members of the movement.
According to the Justice Ministry, a total of 117,208 people have been convicted, while more than 600,000 have been the subject of investigation in Turkey due to alleged links to the Gülen movement since the coup attempt. Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç earlier said 15,539 people are still behind bars over alleged Gülen links.
Ali Babacan, leader of the opposition Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) and a former heavyweight of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has claimed that President Erdoğan ordered officials to “show no mercy” in the government crackdown following the failed coup and to not be concerned about separating the guilty from the innocent.
During the year Erdoğan continued to relentlessly pursue anyone with alleged links to the movement. They have been targets of hate speech, hate crimes, unlawful prosecution, torture and abductions, among other serious human rights violations.
Here is some of the most important news from 2023 concerning Erdoğan’s crackdown on the Gülen movement:
Top court found rights violation in blocking of Bank Asya customer’s funds
In a landmark decision Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled in favor of an applicant who claimed she was blocked from withdrawing money from her account at the now-closed Islamic lender Bank Asya on suspicion of membership in the Gülen movement. More…
2 children accompanied mother serving prison sentence on conviction of links to Gülen movement
Two children, aged 2 and 4 years, accompanied their mother, Serpil Turan, in prison following her arrest on January 5 to serve a sentence for conviction of links to the Gülen movement. More…
Turkey’s top court found rights violation in man’s dismissal due to spouse’s alleged ties to Gülen movement
Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled that the firing of a man due to his wife’s alleged links to the Gülen movement violated his right to respect for private and family life. More…
2 children accompanied mother in prison serving sentence on conviction of link to Gülen movement
Zehre Gürsoy, a mother of four who was arrested on January 30 in the western Turkish province of Edirne to serve a sentence on conviction of “terrorist organization membership,” was. accompanied by two of her children in prison. More…
Crackdown on Gülen movement continued with detention of 20 amid devastation caused by earthquakes
The crackdown on members of the Gülen movement continued with the detention of 20 people amid the devastation caused by twin earthquakes in Turkey on February 6. More…
More children separated from parents as Turkish government’s crackdown on Gülen movement continued
Two more children were left to the care of a relative due to the incarceration of their parents for alleged links to the Gülen movement. Housewife Mihriban Külüs was arrested to serve a sentence for Gülen links, leaving her children ages 6 and 12 to the care of their aunt. Külüs’s husband, Emrah Külüs, has been in prison for the last seven years on similar charges. More…
Turkey’s intelligence agency confirmed abduction of more than 100 people with alleged links to Gülen movement
Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) confirmed in its yearly report that it had conducted operations for the forcible return of more than 100 people with alleged links to the Gülen movement. “… [M]ore than 100 members of the [Gülen movement] from different countries were brought to Turkey as a result of the [agency’s] increased operational capacity abroad,” MİT’s 2022 report said. More…
Purge victim succumbed to cancer without saying goodbye to her jailed husband
Nursel Ekici, 48, a former teacher who was fired by an emergency decree as part of Turkey’s post-coup purge of state institutions, died of cancer without being able to see her imprisoned husband. Her husband, Mustafa, another purge victim and a former teacher, was jailed over alleged links to the Gülen movement. He was not released from prison despite the fact that he has been eligible for parole since March 8. More…
Opposition MP admitted post-coup purge of bureaucrats carried out with no solid evidence
An opposition lawmaker who was a member of a commission formed to investigate an attempted coup in 2016 said a post-coup purge of members of Turkey’s bureaucracy and police force was not due to concrete evidence but rather was based on which minister was in office when they were hired. More…
State-owned bank continued declining applications for earthquake assistance loan submitted by post-coup purge victims
Turkish state-owned Vakıfbank continued to decline applications filed by individuals who were fired from the civil service following a July 15, 2016 coup attempt for a loan that is being offered to people displaced by deadly earthquakes in southern Turkey in early February. More…
Former teacher convicted of links to the Gülen movement denied parole despite eligibility
Former history teacher Seyit Ahmet Aydın was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for alleged links to the Gülen movement. He was kept in western Turkey’s Manisa Akhisar Prison. Aydın’s wife said in a video posted on social media that her husband was kept in prison despite meeting all the criteria for parole. More…
2 members of family killed in traffic accident while driving to visit jailed purge victim
Two members of the Karahanlı family were killed in a traffic accident while driving to Turkey’s central province of Kırıkkale to visit Uğur Karahanlı, who was jailed over alleged links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group accused by the government of “terrorist” activities. More…
Turkey continued jailing mothers with babies as part of crackdown on Gülen movement
Turkish authorities continued jailing mothers with their babies as part of a crackdown on alleged members of the Gülen movement despite a law requiring the postponement of prison sentences for women who are pregnant or have given birth in the last 18 months. Şadinaz Yaşa Yılmaz, the mother of a 10-month-old infant, was sent to prison over alleged links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group accused by the government of “terrorist” activities. More…
Turkey intensified crackdown on Gülen movement, ordered detention of 73 in 2 days
Prosecutors intensified Turkey’s crackdown on the Gülen movement and in two days ordered the detention of 73 people due to alleged links to the movement. More…
Crackdown on Gülen movement continued with dozens of detentions
The crackdown on members of the Gülen movement continued with the detention of 43 people following President Erdoğan’s victory in the presidential election, extending his 20-year rule until 2028. More…
Purge victim forced to work as a deliveryman died in traffic accident
İbrahim Saygı, a former official who was dismissed from Turkey’s Justice Ministry by a government decree as part of purges that followed a July 15, 2016 coup attempt, died in a traffic accident while working as a deliveryman in the western Turkish province of Manisa. More…
Turkey escalated mass detentions in new wave of crackdowns on Gülen movement
Turkey escalated the mass detention of people over alleged links to the Gülen movement, ordering the detention of 69 individuals in a wave of crackdowns on the movement. More…
Purge victim died after heart attack in Turkish prison
Bayram Tekin, a former police officer who was fired by a government decree as part of purges that followed a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey and subsequently jailed, died after a heart attack in Ankara’s Sincan Prison. More…
Former Erdogan aide said hatred of Gülen movement should be rekindled
Pro-government Yeni Şafak daily columnist Aydın Ünal, previously a speechwriter for Erdoğan as well as a former lawmaker from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), discussed in a column how Turkey’s fight against members of the movement, which he described as the “Fetö terrorist organization,” was going as the seventh anniversary of the coup attempt approached. Ünal said although the Gülen movement was dealt a heavy blow in Turkey, with many of its followers jailed, that those still at large were under close scrutiny, that the crackdown on the movement had not yet been completed and that there were big risks in this. More…
Exhibit in former Gestapo prison exposed extent of purge in Turkey
The Purge Museum (Tenkil Müzesi in Turkish), an initiative that collects and exhibits items belonging to individuals who survived Turkey’s massive crackdown on the Gülen movement, opened an exhibit in Germany’s historic Klapperfeld Prison, which was also used by the Gestapo. More…
Documentary series sheds light on plight of child victims of Turkey’s purge
The Tenkil Museum, a civil initiative dedicated to sustaining the memory of the victims of Turkey’s massive crackdown on the Gülen movement, launched a documentary series focused on the suffering of child victims caught up in the persecution. More…
Opposition party vice chair acknowledged systematic torture of supporters of the Gülen movement
Ahmet Zeki Üçok, vice chair of the nationalist opposition İYİ (Good) Party, after a visit to two imprisoned journalists, said they faced torture that was not even meted out to Gülenists in the past, acknowledging that alleged members of the faith-based Gülen movement faced widespread torture in custody. More…
Parents of critically ill teen were detained in nationwide police operation that targeted Gülen movement
The parents of 17-year-old Azra Ağır, who suffers from Joubert Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes abnormal brain development, were detained in two different provinces, Gaziantep and Kırşehir. The news was announced by Ağır on social media, who called for prayers from her followers. More…
UK Home Office report highlighted persecution of Gülen movement in Turkey
The United Kingdom Home Office released an update on its Country Policy and Information Note on the faith-based Gülen movement in Turkey, which detailed widespread rights violations suffered in the country by members of the group since a coup attempt in July 2016. More…
Disabled teacher was arrested in nationwide operation against Gülen movement
Former history teacher Mustafa Seçkin, who is almost totally blind, was arrested in eastern Turkey’s Elazığ province after being detained on October 24. His arrest was made public on Monday by his daughter Irem Seçkin, who said her father was interrogated about a social media post. More…
ECtHR notified Turkey of 1,000 applications over Gülen movement convictions after landmark ruling
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) notified Ankara of 1,000 applications in its docket for convictions of Gülen movement membership over the use of the ByLock smartphone application, following a landmark ruling in September that found the use of the application not to constitute a reliable piece of evidence or a criminal offense. More…
Turkish courts began ordering compensation for reinstated purge victims following top court order
Courts in Turkey began to order the state to pay damages to purge victims who were reinstated to their positions after they were summarily dismissed in the aftermath of a failed coup in July 2016. The decisions started after the Constitutional Court annulled a provision that excluded monetary compensation to reinstated public sector workers. More…
Director of film about Turkey’s purge victims received award for defying gov’t censorship
Nejla Demirci, the director of a documentary that shed light on the challenges faced by victims of Turkey’s post-coup purge, was honored with an award by the Contemporary Journalists Association (ÇGD) for her defiance in the face of government efforts to censor her work. More…
