Gülen resorts to UN to investigate Turkey’s coup

CAIRO – 26 September 2017: The U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen calls the United Nations to form an international commission to investigate Turkey’s controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016, and to acquit himself after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused him of launching the coup d’état.

Consequently, New York-based Journalists and Writers Foundation (JWF) issued a statement on Monday requesting the UN to establish an independent international and credible investigation committee to remove any kind of vagueness about the coup.

This vagueness has been employed by the Turkish government as justification to violate human rights, indiscriminately kill and arrest civilians in southeast Turkey, as well as repress authoritarian descent and any social group or movement inspired by the teachings of Gülen.

“The coup attempt of July 15, 2016 was an attack on the democratic order of the Republic of Turkey. The state of emergency declared by the Turkish government led to incitement of hatred, atrocity crimes, massive human rights violations and the collective punishment and arbitrary persecution of people on the basis of their alleged/perceived relationship to the Gülen inspired Hizmet movement,” according to the statement.

The statement has urged the Turkish government to withdraw all the charges against judges, prosecutors, lawyers, journalists and other dissenters and to release human rights defenders, journalists, academics and activists in custody or under arrest on baseless charges.

JWF calls upon the Turkish government to restore an independent judicial system in accordance with the rule of law and to guarantee all its citizens the fundamental right of access to justice.

As the coup attempt unfolded, a lawyer for the Turkish government, Robert Amsterdam, said there were indications that the Gülenists were behind the coup, according to The Guardian.

Yet, Gülen has denied those claims and called for international investigation, but none of his demands have been responded to.

The Turkish government took advantage of that coup to clean sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions by arresting 50,510 people and subjecting 169,013 to legal proceedings and dehumanizing their figures, besides closing many institutions and schools.