… If the [Fethullah] Gülen movement were a small, ineffective community, the AKP would never have disturbed it. Or if the Gülen movement had acted in full cooperation with the government, such a conflict wouldn’t have occurred. But the Gülen movement has a specific mission. What is that mission?
They seek to obtain the pleasure of God by leading good religious lives and engaging in educational and social services. The AKP, on the other hand, wants to improve its political power and political services to earn prestige and thus become good religious people and earn the pleasure of God.
Naturally, the diverging paths have led to conflict. Such things have occurred in the past, and a typical example is the Battle of Siffin. An AKP supporter should answer this question: Which side was the “parallel structure” on in the Battle of Siffin?
Excerpted from the interview made with Mr. Akyol, published on Today’s Zaman, 09 June 2014, Monday
If the Hizmet movement had believed that services to Turkey can best be provided through politics, it would have done so from the beginning. Civil society has a special place in democracies. One can also serve the country by rejecting democratic pressures and upholding rule of law and individual freedoms.
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Turkey’s strategic importance cannot be overestimated. However, Erdogan’s personal friendship with Trump alone cannot resolve the difficulties. Even if Trump may be willing to find a way to extradite Gulen or find another country to accept him in order to placate a NATO partner for geopolitical reasons, he must not. The damage to the rule of law would outweigh any benefit Trump hopes to gain from such an action.
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