EP Turkey rapporteur criticizes Ankara for labelling people with Bank Asya accounts as ‘terrorists’

The European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur, Nacho Sanchez Amor, has criticized the Turkish government for labelling people who had accounts at now-closed Islamic lender Bank Asya as “terrorists” on suspicion of membership in the Gülen movement, the Serbestiyet news website reported.

Amor, who met with a group of Turkish journalists at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Friday, spoke about the latest developments in the country.

Describing Turkey as the only candidate country for the EU that has moved away from Europe, Amor said he had repeatedly told former interior minister Süleyman Soylu that it is not logical to seek the EU’s help in the fight against terrorism as long as Turkey arbitrarily labels large numbers of people in the country as terrorists.

Serbestiyet quoted Amor as saying that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) labels journalists as terrorists and says they’re fighting against Gülenists while ignoring the fact that they are the ones who embedded Gülenists within the state institutions.

Amor said that calling people who had accounts at Bank Asya terrorists is “madness.”

The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 and labels it a “terrorist organization,” although the movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

The government took over Bank Asya on February 4, 2015, and its banking license was canceled on July 22, 2016 — seven days after the coup attempt — by Turkey’s Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) because of its links to the movement. The banking watchdog had ruled for the complete takeover of all shares of the Islamic lender by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) in May 2015.

Thousands of people have faced terrorism charges and been jailed in Turkey since the coup attempt simply for their transactions at Bank Asya, which is considered, among other things, a sign of terrorist organization membership by the Turkish authorities.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in several cases that having an account at Bank Asya cannot be considered evidence of terrorist organization membership.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of Dec. 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.

Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following the coup attempt.