A Turkish court has ordered the formal arrest of a television station chief and three police officials on terrorism charges, but ordered the release of eight others, including a newspaper editor, connected to a U.S.-based Muslim cleric accused of plotting to overthrow Turkey's government.
Turkish media also reported Friday that Instanbul's prosecutor had asked the court to issue an arrest warrant for the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who heads the Muslim group known as Hizmet (Service) and once strongly supported President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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December 19, 2014 6:46 PM
Here are some legitimate questions that VOA reporting is steering us away from: 1) How is Gulen a "political foe" but at same time he is in self-imposed exile? Last I checked, publicly identifying yourself as "politician" is the first step to becoming a politician. You can't be a pious innocent cleric living in foreign country and be a politician at the same time. 2) If Gulen had always been well-intentioned, why did he not move back to Turkey when his relationship with AKP and Erdogan was at its highest point?! What to fear? Unless you have an agenda, nothing. 3) How did the anonymous Twitter account leak news about an imminent POLICE operation against Gulen-linked media before it happened?? Would the Americans be comfortable if some media channel had a cult in US police?? Finally, why does VOA avoid mentioning any of the wiretappings of Erdogan and government ministers that started to surface after the relationship between Erdogan and Gulen deteriorated? Would Americans be comfortable to the idea that their top officials are being listened on by a followers of a cleric who is living in a foreign country? All questions above and many others that I can never find the answers to them in US and Western media has taught me to not trust the US and Western rhetoric against Turkey. If there is anything we learned from Eric Garner case and the inhumane treatment by CIA on non-convicted people is that whenever US government or media start a lecture in freedom of press, or human rights or any similar rhetoric, simply turn the TV off, for all that lecturing is a BS largely motivated by some agenda.
December 19, 2014 6:14 PM
The unfortunate answer to your question is that the the United States has continued friendly relations with Erdogen's regime out of military necessity. Turkey is a major military power, and occupies a vital strategic location, bridging both Europe and the Middle East. NATO needs to keep Turkey in their fold, as the Turkish Armed forces could, if need be, restrict Russia's access to the Mediterranean Sea.
December 19, 2014 4:53 PM
Erdogan's Turkey and Putin's Russia are very much alike. The only question is: why is Turkey still a NATO member?