Discrimination

Turkey’s pro-government media outlets and journalists on Tuesday were quick to put the blame on the US and the faith-based Gülen movement for the murder of the Russian ambassador to Turkey by a police officer on Monday evening.The gunman, Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, chanted Islamist slogans also used by radical terrorist organization the Al Nusra Front after he shot Karlov to death at an art gallery in Ankara.Yet, many pro-government newspapers and columnists did not hesitate to label the gunman a member of “FETÖ,” a derogatory term the government coined to call the Gülen movement a terrorist organization, and also talked about the US role in the murder from their front pages on Tuesday.

Turkey has since beginning of this year paid a total of TL 2.4 million in rewards to citizens who have provided the state with useful information about others who are suspected of having committed a crime, according to figures from the Finance Ministry. The amount of money paid to informants in 2015 from the state budget was TL 1 million.

Although the possible affiliations of police officer Mert Altıntaş, who assassinated the Russian ambassador to Ankara on Monday night, have not yet been determined, the pro-government media and the Turkish government’s troll army continue to disseminate false stories in an effort to link the gunman to the Gülen movement.

Recently leaked report drafted by the parliamentary coup commission established to investigate a July 15 coup attempt suggested that the government reorganize Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and lobby among the Turkish diaspora against members of the Gülen movement,

The report suggested going on the offensive against “FETÖ,” a derogatory term and acronym for Fethullahist Terrorist Organization, coined by Erdoğan and the AKP government, by forming an anti-FETÖ diaspora among Turks abroad, and also claimed that the Gülen movement still has assets valued at $25-50 billion around the World.

Turkish professor says Gülenists responsible ‘even for bolts of lightning’ | Turkey Purge

A Turkish political science professor from Sakarya University said in a tweet on Monday that the Gülen movement is responsible for everything that happens in Turkey, including bolts of lightning.

“If somebody has an accident, or if someone shoots a police officer, and even in the event of a lightning bolt, we will hold FETÖ responsible,” Professor Hamza Al tweeted.

Cemil Barlas, a staunch supporter of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and commentator for the pro-government A Haber TV, said during a program on Monday that followers of the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of being behind a failed coup on July 15, must be kept in detention camps and should be given food tickets since the government has seized most of their assets.

As the pro-government media claimed that the murderer of Russia’s ambassador to Ankara had used a smart phone application known as Bylock in an effort to link the gunman to the Gülen movement, it was confirmed on Thursday that the murderer, police officer Mevlüt Altıntaş, did not have ByLock on his phone.

According to a Doğan news agency report, Altıntaş did not download ByLock although pro-government columnist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote on same day in Hürriyet that the police officer who shot the ambassador had downloaded the application, which is considered a sign of affiliation with the Gülen movement, according to the government.A pro-government daily similarly claimed that Altıntaş was connected to 10 blacklisted Bylock users, according to government reports.

Hamidiye Altıntaş, the mother of police officer Mevlüt Altıntaş, who killed Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov on Monday, denied pro-government media claims that her son attended a prep school linked to the Gülen movement before joining the police force, the T24 news website reported.

“My son did not attend any prep school before his police exam. My son was calm and introverted,” said mother Altıntaş during a police interrogation.Altıntaş also said her son called her on the day of assassination but since she was a guest in another house, told him to call back later.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s claim that US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen was behind the assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey on Monday is an insult to Russian intelligence, a prominent Russian analyst said.

Speaking during an interview with Aljazeera International on Tuesday, Mark Sleboda – a Russian international relations and security analyst – said the idea that Gülen followers are behind Russian envoy Andrei Karlov’s killing by a Turkish police officer on Monday is an insult to Russian intelligence.

An Ankara-based couple who were earlier dismissed from their positions at Gazi University have been detained along with their three children in Edirne while they were on their way to escape to Greece.Gendarmes stopped a car on the Keşan-Malkara highway after a phone call informed them about the family’s plan, on Thursday. M.U. and his wife E.U., both associate professors, their three children aged between 4 to 7 and a smuggler were detained in the car. Thousands of people have fled Turkey due to a massive witch-hunt launched by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government against sympathizers of the Gülen movement in the wake of a failed coup attempt on July 15. The government accuses the movement of masterminding the coup despite the lack of any evidence to that effect.