Turkey targets unlikely suspects in Gulen purge

A Turkish girl gestures under a huge picture of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk at a rally in Gundogdu Square in Izmir on August 4, 2016, protesting against the failed July 15 military coup attempt. Emre Tazegul / AFPTurkey targets unlikely suspects in Gulen purge

Paul Osterlund
Foreign Correspondent

August 5, 2016 Updated: August 6, 2016 03:49 PM

ISTANBUL // History professor Candan Badem this week became an unlikely target of a government purge of followers of a US-based Islamic cleric blamed for an attempted coup in Turkey last month.

On Monday, he was told by the administration of Tunceli University, a state institution in the Eastern Anatolia region, that he was being suspended for three months. They accused him of being member of the secretive religious movement led by Fethullah Gulen.

Two days later, he was arrested and held for a day for having a book written by Mr Gulen in his office.

"My university office, home and cellphone were searched. After a day in custody I was released under judicial supervision with an international travel ban," Mr Badem tweeted after being released.

Mr Badem, 46, told The National he was astonished by the action against him as he is a staunch atheist and Marxist who has publicly criticised the Gulen movement. In a tweet last year he pointed out to Mr Gulen’s western sympathisers that a passage from one of the cleric’s books advocated death for apostates.

http://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/turkey-targets-unlikely-suspects-in-gulen-purge