Turkish PM Erdoğan vows ‘to sterilize’ Gülen movement ‘by boiling or molecularizing’

AFYONKARAHİSAR – Hürriyet Daily News

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has pledged to find the members of the Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen movement in the judiciary and police.

"In order to sterilize this dirty water that contaminated the milk, we will either boil or molecularize it," Erdoğan said.

The vow came at the closing speech of his ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) 22nd Consultation and Assessment Meeting in the western province of Afyonkarahisar, defending his promise against being called a “witch hunt.”

“If changing the positions for those [officials] committing treason is called a ‘witch hunt,’ then yes, we perform a ‘witch hunt,’” Erdoğan told his party’s deputies referring to the reshuffles of thousands of officials in the judiciary and police departments. He reiterated his accusations of a “parallel state,” a term he used to define the members of the Gülen movement in top state positions and who allegedly are attempting to topple the government.

Erdoğan also called on all his deputies, mayors, provincial party heads and all of the public to inform the party about the presence of such people in the state structure to help in his “witch-hunt.”

Erdoğan also said those who have infiltrated the state’s branches are hard to identify, as they hide themselves tactically. He once again called on Gülen to come to Turkey and end his 15-year-long exile in the United States, saying “there are many good places in Turkey for those who want to live in seclusion."