Trustees were appointed to 10 companies – including mostly schools — in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır in yet another government-led move against the sympathizers of the Gülen movement on Saturday.
The move comes after the same trustees – who were revealed to be pro-government due to their social media posts — were appointed to the founding association of the Selahattin Eyyübi University in the same province last week.
Each of the four trustees appointed to Private Dicle Science High School, Private Dicle Anatolian High School, Bahattin Bey Primary and Seconday Schools, Leyla Hanım Anatolian High School, Leyla Hanım Science High School and Nil Primary, Secondary and Pre-schools will reportedly receive a monthly salary of TL 22,000.
The Gülen movement is a grassroots social initiative inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and carries out charitable activities all around the world, including education, distributing humanitarian aid and providing drinking water especially in African countries.
Erdoğan refers to the movement as “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization,” which is used by the government-backed judiciary to frame sympathizers of the Gülen movement. Erdoğan also coined the term “parallel state” after December 2013 to refer to people believed to be inspired by the ideas of Gülen, especially those within the state bureaucracy.
Thousands of prosecutors, judges and police chiefs were reassigned, dismissed or imprisoned either for taking part in the corruption investigation or based on allegations of having links to the movement. Also there have been many police operations carried out targeting shopkeepers, teachers, members of the judiciary, journalists and police officers who are accused of being affiliated with the Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement.
The Gülen movement strongly rejects the allegations brought against it.