According to report on the indictment which published by Hurriyet, the organization got 8,500 academics accepted into the universities by ‘stealing’ the questions for masters, doctorate and ALES (Academic Master Education Exam) exams between 2002-2013. They built 17 foundation universities in Turkey that were all shut down on 23 July by a government decree. The organization also has universities in many countries (USA, Albania, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Romania, Bosnia&Herzegovina, Iraq) and the prosecuter claims that in the indictment, they are present in state universities as well. According to the indictment, at universities the members were in contact with the university, faculty, high school and institute ‘imams,’ and members worked coordinating them. For university students, houses and dorms were used for the group’s classes, given by ‘sisters’ & ‘brothers’.
After 15 July the administration of Marmara University sent a list of the academic Gülen members who were allegedly associated with the organization to YOK (High Education Institute). After giving this list, an investigation was opened into 15 suspects for ‘terrorist organization membership’ and other suspects’ files were saved. All the suspects in the indictment are accused of using ByLock, opening accounts in BankAsya and withdrawing from Digiturk Platform under the orders of the Gülen organization. Ten of them are dismissed and 5 are suspended. The prosecuter wants imprisonment for between 7.5 and 15 years for all of the suspects.
Ebru Aksay
