Sedat Peker, a staunch supporter of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and a convicted gang leader, said on Monday that US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who is accused by Erdoğan and the Turkish government of masterminding a failed coup last year, founded LGBT community.
Commenting on a sexual harassment incident in Sivas, in which the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) youth wing, the Grey Wolves (Ülkü Ocakları), Sivas provincial branch head Oğuz Bulut was involved, Peker wrote on Twitter that “it has been revealed that LGBT was founded by Gülen in order to guarantee the future of his disciples. (Be happy! Oğuz [Bulut] is with you, too).”
Peker said they would punish Bulut, who is accused of sexually harassing a 15-year-old boy at the Ülkü Ocakları Sivas branch, if they find him.
“As a community of young men, we are sorry that our number decreased by one now. And now your [LGBT community] number increased by one.”
“It is a fact that we took that coward [Bulut] out of our community two months ago,” he tweeted.
Bulut was a close associate of Peker before he was caught by the boy’s family in their home.
Earlier in July, Peker targeted Gülen followers and said they would hang all people linked to the Gülen movement from flagpoles and trees.
“They should pray for our president [Erdoğan], who they call a dictator. God forbid, if his visit to this world ends even in natural ways, they will see what a dictator is. God willing, we will hang all those who are sympathetic to them [Gülen movement], who walked with them, who didn’t leave them, on the nearest flagpole. We will hang them on the nearest tree,” Peker said during a visit to Çengelköy Martyrs cemetery in İstanbul.
Peker’s statement came a day after Erdoğan targeted people linked to the Gülen movement while speaking to a crowd of thousands at the July 15 Martyrs’ Bridge on the anniversary of the failed coup attempt.
“We’re not just some nomadic tribe, we are a nation. They, however, are a disease, disease. That’s the difference,” said Erdoğan.
“First we will cut off traitors’ heads,” said the president while underlining that there were other powers behind the movement.