Hacker group brings down Gülen movement website

ISTANBUL

A screenshot captured from herkul.org after the hacking.

A Turkish hacker group has attacked a website close to the Gülen movement, uploading a message in support of equal opportunities on its homepage.

In the message posted on herkul.org, the group, describing itself as the “Committee to struggle for democratic high schools” (DlmkHack), slammed both the educational policies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the system of prep schools. A large number of Turkish prep schools are owned by the “Hizmet” (Service) movement of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

DlmkHack left its signature alongside a motto declaring, “Science for the people, education for the people, high school for the people.” A song by leftist music band Grup Yorum was also used as background music to the hacked page.

Gülen regularly delivers video messages to his followers via herkul.org.

The closure of examination prep schools (dershanes) has recently been the cause of a bitter row between supporters of the Gülen movement and the AKP. The latter seemed to step back recently, describing the move as simply a “transformation” of prep schools into private schools, and putting the deadline at September 2015.