January
14, 2014, 12:30 p.m.
Turkish police raided offices of a
government-backed Islamic charity in six provinces on Tuesday and detained at
least 23 people accused of having links with Al Qaeda, local media reported.
The coordinated operation against
the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, or IHH, prompted the leadership of Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to sack
the senior police official responsible for conducting the raid at the charity's
Kilis headquarters, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.
Erdogan's government, the target of
a major, monthlong anti-corruption drive by justice authorities, has fired or
demoted nearly 2,000 senior police involved in the sweeps of government offices
and business allies, Hurriyet has reported.
The sacked police and local
prosecutors have been accused of being under the sway of prominent Islamic
cleric Fethullah Gulen, who runs a global empire of private schools and
interfaith dialogue from his U.S. compound in Pennsylvania where he lives in
self-exile.
IHH issued a statement condemning
the raids on its offices as an attempt to besmirch its relief work on behalf of
refugees from Syria and its aid to Turkish communities in the war-torn
neighboring nation and border region.
"They are trying to show the
IHH as if it is related to terror organizations," the agency's leader,
Yasar Kutluay, said in the statement.
IHH
was behind the ill-fated attempt to bring aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
during an Israeli blockade of the territory in May 2010. Nine Turkish activists
were killed when Israeli commandos
No comments:
Post a Comment