Doesn’t Obama know Gülen is in the US?


Date posted: March 11, 2014

MURAT YETKİN

In a statement on March 8, the White House made a half-correction of what Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan has been saying about a telephone conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama on Feb. 19. That was the first phone conversation between the two leaders in over six months.

The statement had nothing to do with the strategic parts of the conversation, which were actually mentioned by officials both in Ankara and Washington DC. The two leaders did indeed discuss critical issues like Syria, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Cyprus and Ukraine.

In the White House readout after the conversations, there was no reference of the massive corruption claims about the Erdoğan government and the series of new legislation bringing more political control over the judiciary and the Internet. There was only a note about the importance of the rule of law in Turkey.

From the day after the conversation onwards, Erdoğan has underlined another point, which is critical to current political affairs in Turkey. According to Erdoğan, he and Obama discussed the presence of Fethullah Gülen in the U.S. and the irritation he has been giving to the government.

Gülen, a U.S. Green Card holder, is a moderate Islamist scholar with a global network of sympathizers who has been living in a farmhouse in Pennsylvania since the mid-1990s. He used to be one of Erdoğan’s closest allies, especially while he was clearing Erdoğan’s way to the 50 percent popular support from the old secular establishment and military with the help of his sympathizers in the judiciary and security system.

When Erdoğan started to feel threatened by the Gülen presence within the state apparatus from 2012 on, the picture started to change.

The graft probe, which started on Dec. 17, 2013, brought the fight within religious/conservative politics in the country to surface. Erdoğan had to force four of his ministers to resign because of corruption allegations and had to face a bombardment of phone tapping recordings about his alleged interventions in government tenders, bribe connections and media affairs. He has repeatedly denounced Gülen as the source of what he called a “coup attempt.”

According to Erdoğan, when he discussed the situation with Obama, the U.S. president said he had “got the message.” On a live TV show, he added that he believed Obama would “do what’s necessary,” implying that Gülen might be extradited to Turkey.

The White House statement came the next day, saying that Erdoğan’s words referring to Obama were “not accurate.”

That is why I call it a “half-correction”; the White House still doesn’t say what the “accurate” wording was. To this day, it has not been possible to get an on-the-record or even background statement from either Turkish or American sources about the “accurate” wording of Obama’s answer to Erdoğan.

It would not make sense to assume that Obama did not know about Gülen’s presence in his country after all the debate and before making that phone call to Erdoğan.

Gülen has hundreds of schools in the U.S. as well. But they are not Turkish schools, as Gülenists promote them in Turkey, like the thousands of them in more than 100 countries across the world.

Gülen’s global schools are English-language schools run by Muslim Turks in places where it would be very difficult for American or British teachers to work, both politically and financially.

It may be rather easy for Erdoğan to phone to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to ask him to close the more than 20 Gülen-run schools in the Punjab region. But it may not be so easy to ask for the closure of Gülen schools in the U.S., or even to ask for Gülen’s extradition without even a court order against him.

It is possible that Obama briefly confirmed that he is aware of the situation without making a comment, in order to avoid being involved in Turkish politics ahead of the March 30 local elections.

Perhaps after the elections we will be able to learn exactly what Obama said to Erdoğan, and whether he will do anything regarding the latter’s Gülen problem.

 

Source: Hurriyet Daily , March 11, 2014


Related News

Love is A Verb – forthcoming documentary on the Gülen Movement

Love Is A Verb is an examination of a social movement of Sufi-inspired Sunni Muslims that began in Turkey in the l960s and now spans across the globe. The group is called Hizmet, the Turkish word for “service” or The Gülen Movement after its inspiration and teacher, Fethullah Gülen, a man TIME magazine named as […]

Journeys with the Gülen [Hizmet] Movement: 2008-2012 by James Harrington

James C. Harrington*, January 27, 2013 Journeys through life take strange twists and happen in mysterious ways – some would say providential, although I might not – but one does wonder at times. My journeys with the Gülen movement began one Summer Sunday morning in 2008, when a judge friend of mine announced from the back […]

Fethullah Gülen extends condolences over death of Turkish literary giant

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has extended his condolences to the family and fans of Yaşar Kemal, one of Turkey’s greatest writers, whose works were translated into 40 languages.

Who was behind the Turkish Coup: Sufi Islamic Scholar Fathullah Gülen or the Regime itself?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has bluntly blamed it on the Hizmet movement, Gülen’s initiative for intercultural and interfaith dialogue and education in the country expanding across the world today. But for many immensely impressed by Gülen’s global humanitarian, social and Islam-based peace activism, it remains an obscure question as to how the former ally of his country is now blamed for the coup.

Turkey’s post-revolutionary civil war

What does this corruption investigation has anything to do with the AKP-Gülen Movement tension? Well, the prosecutor who apparently led this investigation in big secrecy, Zekeriya Öz, is believed to be a member of the movement. Corruption is a serious matter and the real best defense would be to help bring those who are charged to justice. Meanwhile, the Gülen Movement, normally a civil society group, should help save itself from the image of secrecy and infiltration that it has been drawn into in the past decade.

Renowned Kurdish singer Sivan Perwer lauds Gülen’s support for peace process

Famous Kurdish singer Şivan Perwer has said he found the remarks of well-respected Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen on the peace process to end the Kurdish issue “important.” Perwer described the announcement of support from Gülen as a “significant event” as he said people in Turkey listen to what the Islamic scholar has to say. […]

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

UN Body Asks Immediate Release Of Arbitrarily Jailed Police Chief

President Obama sends message to Gulen-inspired International Cultural Festival

Foreign journalists baffled by gov’t decision to shut down prep schools

Peace Curriculum Includes Fethullah Gulen

Call for Papers – International Conference on “Indo-Turkish Dialogue: Historical, Social and Cultural Perspectives”

Graft probe in Turkey: Path and passengers

At British Muslim Heritage Centre in Manchester

Copyright 2024 Hizmet News