Who benefits the most from the AKP-Gülen movement rift?

ÖMER TAŞPINAR
ÖMER TAŞPINAR


Date posted: November 10, 2014

Over the last 12 years, the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) chief accomplishment has been to establish the supremacy of Turkey’s elected leaders over the military. The Turkish military had ousted four governments since 1960.

Today Turkish democracy no longer operates at gunpoint. Yet, an unexpected byproduct of the current rift between the AKP and the Gülen movement involves the potential return of the military tutelage system since embattled President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan now seems increasingly willing to forge an unholy alliance with the Turkish army on issues ranging from the Kurdish question to the need to eradicate Gülenists. The AKP’s opportunism in courting the military came shortly after the corruption probe when one of Erdoğan’s top advisors suggested that the military was framed by the same Gülenist prosecutors who launched the corruption investigation against the government. This statement put into question the whole legitimacy of the judiciary files against officers charged with coup-plotting. Not surprisingly, almost all the officers implicated in trials have been released.

It is only a matter of logic. The institution that suffered the most from the AKP-Gülen alliance will also be the one that will benefit the most from the rupture in the Islamic camp. A bit of history may help us understand why this is the case. Until recently the AKP and the Gülen movement shared a common enemy. The raison d’être of the alliance was the need for both groups to protect themselves against the staunchly secularist military which considered both groups as existential threats to Kemalism. It was eventually the ultra-secularist drive of the military in the 1990s that led to a marriage of convenience between the Gülenists and the AKP which replaced the Welfare Party (RP) in 2001. In the eyes of the Turkish military, the Gülen movement was an even more daunting challenge than the AKP. After all, the phenomenon of political Islam was identifiable in political parties like the RP or the AKP. The Gülenists, on the other hand, represented a much different kind of threat because of their long-term social, cultural and educational strategy. Theirs was a generational project. The Gülenists claimed to be above politics and apolitical. Yet the graduates of Gülen-affiliated schools often entered public service in key government institutions. In the eyes of the army, this amounted to a secret agenda of political infiltration and represented an existential threat for the Kemalist/secular foundations of the republic.

The tension between the military and the Islamic camp culminated with the e-coup in 2007. Shortly after winning the 2007 elections in a landslide, the AKP launched a counter-offensive in order to put an end to the role and power of the military over elected politicians. The scope of Gülenist prosecutors became clear during the Ergenekon investigation. This situation radically changed the image of a social and religious movement that tried hard to stay above politics. The investigation targeted a network composed of active duty and retired military personnel, ultra-nationalist extremists, political activists and organized crime figures — a conglomeration often referred to as the “deep state” — all united by the desire to bring an end to the rule of the AKP and its ally, Fetullah Gülen.

Until recently it was safe to assume that the net effect of the Ergenekon investigation was the total emasculation of the Turkish military. Yet, the dynamics of Turkish politics are notoriously fickle and there are already clear signs that the military is reasserting itself. To be sure, another military intervention seems farfetched. Yet, it is no longer possible to rule out a scenario where generals could once again act as the self-declared guardians of the system. They would probably do so not only by exploiting the division within the Islamic camp but also by raising their voice on issues related to the Kurdish question in domestic and foreign policy.

Source: Today's Zaman , November 09, 2014


Related News

Rounding up the ISIS collaborators, in Turkey and Kurdistan

As U.S., Iraqi and Iraqi Kurdish forces close in on Mosul, there is hope that the military campaign can force ISIS out of Iraqi territory. Of course, there are many questions still unresolved, for example, about how to pick up the pieces in Mosul.

The fall of democracy and predicament of political Islam in Turkey

Hizmet is one of the world’s leading civil society movements. The threatening remarks and the derogatory discourse of Erdoğan against Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement is totally at odds with democratic norms and principles.

Hizmet movement and perceptions

We are going through a very critical period. We need the common sense and support of all the precious members of the Hizmet movement as we have never needed them before. We must protect our democratic gains. I pen this article as a person who closely sided with the Hizmet movement during the attacks of Ergenekon — a clandestine organization nested within the state trying to overthrow or manipulate the democratically elected government — and the deep state, and who backed its justified objections to the government’s plan to shut down the prep schools.

A way to hide the truth: the Hizmet Movement

All of the corruption and graft was revealed by the process of December 17-25, 2013. The only way out for the AK Party was to create the impression that it was a conspiracy.

Islamabad High Court: Pak-Turk Schools will not be handed over to Turkish Government

Justice Aamer Farooq of the Islamabad High Court on Friday disposed of a petition filed by Pak-Turk Educational Foundation against the possible handover of its schools to another Turkish educational network, the Maarif Foundation.

Academics: Hizmet a movement, not a gang; Gülen builds ties

The Hizmet movement led by US-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen is not a gang but a movement, academics have said in reaction to a smear campaign led by the Turkish government against the movement and its representatives.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

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

In Case You Missed It

Erdoğan steps up hateful speech against Gülen

Hate speech creates new opportunities for Hizmet movement

AK Party founder: I don’t believe claims of parallel state

Powerful but reclusive Turkish cleric – BBC’s interview with Fethullah Gulen

Brooklyn Amity School crowned karate champion

Hizmet’s role in global peace, interfaith dialogue highlighted in African conference

Kimse Yok Mu to stop beggary in Sakarya, Turkey

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News