Turkish court appoints trustees to 48 more companies over alleged Gülen links

A court in Aydın province appointed trustees to the management of 48 companies, including leading freezer company Uğur, over alleged links to the Gülen movement. According to the T24 website, the Aydın court appointed Turkey’s state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) as the new trustee of 48 companies.

The Turkish government has been confiscating the private property of non-loyalist businesspeople without due process on unsubstantiated charges of terrorist links. Nearly 1,000 companies with $12 billion in assets have been transferred to the TMSF since a coup attempt on July 15, 2016. The companies in question were mostly targeted as part of a state crackdown against the Gülen movement. Among the seized companies are more than 160 media outlets that used to have critical editorial policies.

The government’s crackdown against the movement, however, is not limited to the period following the coup attempt since the management of many organizations affiliated with the movement have already been seized by the TMSF over the course of the past three years.

Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Erdoğan pinned the blame on the  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.

Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup. Turkish government has also suspended or dismissed more than 150,000  judges, teachers, police and civil servants after the coup attempt. (SCF with turkeypurge.com)

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