Islamist Turkey - A muezzin, imam and local mufti who gave shelter to Gezi protesters are 'reassigned' to other posts.

Islamist Turkey - A muezzin, imam and local mufti who gave shelter to Gezi protesters are 'reassigned' to other posts.(TZ).

A muezzin, imam and local mufti who came to prominence during June's Gezi protests have been reassigned to new mosques, media outlets said on Saturday.

During the intense first week of the Gezi Park protests in June, protesters fleeing tear gas were given shelter at İstanbul's Bezm-i Alem Mosque.

Now the mosque's muezzin, who denied subsequent allegations that the protesters drank alcohol and behaved inappropriately there, has been transferred -- along with the mosque's imam and the mufti of the Beyoğlu district, media outlets said Saturday.

Fuat Yıldırım, formerly muezzin of the Bezm-i Alem Valide Sultan Mosque in the city's Beyoğlu district, was recently discharged from his post at that mosque and appointed to a mosque in Kayabaşı, a village northwest of İstanbul.Yıldırım made headlines during the Gezi Park protests, which began in late May as a bid to stop a government plan to demolish one of central İstanbul's last green spaces to make way for a replica of an Ottoman-era military barracks, when he denied claims that protesters drank alcohol in the mosque.
During a protest on June 2, some protesters fleeing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets fired at close range by police took shelter in the Bezm-i Alem Valide Sultan Mosque after officials in the mosque opened its doors to injured protesters so they could receive first aid.

Later, the mosque was used as an infirmary by volunteer doctors.In what many saw as an effort to harden Turkey's conservatives against the protest movement, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has repeatedly claimed that the demonstrators entered the mosque without taking off their shoes and drank alcohol there.

Following those allegations, Yıldırım was questioned by the İstanbul Police Department's anti-terrorism unit. He said in his statement that he did not see anyone drinking alcohol or behaving inappropriately in the mosque. In an exchange reported in the media, the mufti of İstanbul told Yıldırım that he “got exhausted, we should appoint you somewhere else.” Yıldırım replied, “No, I did not.”

The imam of the Bezm-i Alem Valide Sultan Mosque, Halil Necipoğlu, was appointed to a mosque in İstanbul's Zeytinburnu district, while Beyoğlu Mufti Recai Albayrak was transferred to the Karadeniz Ereğli district in the northern province of Zonguldak.

In a post on its Twitter account, the Religious Affairs Directorate said the Beyoğlu mufti's new appointment was a routine reshuffle. Yıldırım, the directorate said, was not discharged, but only temporarily moved while an investigation into the alleged alcohol consumption in the mosque is carried out. The directorate added that Necipoğlu's appointment had been decided “three months before,” but didn't clarify whether that meant three months before the protests or three months before the reshuffle.