Why was Mr. Gulen’s name brought up in the coup attempt in Turkey?
Date posted: July 17, 2016
Q: Do you know why the president (Erdogan) needed to bring your name up in this [coup attempt]?
Fethullah Gulen: He (Mr. Erdogan) has always had a reaction to those who do not obey him since the beginning.
As I previously expressed in other occasions, maybe, he was concealing some of his feelings.
There are things they were not able to achieve worldwide. People in the Hizmet Movement opened schools in 170 countries.
They tried to open Yunus Emre houses in 14-15 locations but they could not be successful. Turkish Olympiads displeased them.
Before founding the [AK] Party, he came to consult with me about founding the party. I met with him twice. One is when he came to ask my opinion about founding the [AK] Party. I suppose, he went to other people as well. It was not only a matter of asking opinion but also seeking support. I expressed my own considerations at the time.
Then my friends told me this. After he met with me in the 5th floor (Altunizade, Istanbul), when he was in the elevator, he said to the person next to him “we need to defeat them, vanquish them first.”
That is, they do not want any alternative formation, any service to exist.
In Pakistan, where more than 27 million children remain out of school, every teacher and educational institution matters. The Turkish non-governmental schools in question are ranked among the best in terms of in infrastructure, as well as quality of education and character-building.
Was there a sincere alliance between the Gulen Movement and Erdogan?
NRT correspondent Huner Anwer interviews Fethullah Gulen in his Pennsylvania residence ask the crucial question on alliance between the Gulen Movement and Erdogan. Gulen says, briefly, there has never been sincere alliance between them but the movement supported Erdogan as long as Erdogan stayed in line with democratic values and honored rule of law.
Following the abortive putsch on July 15 2016, allegations of unfair trials, using torture in prisons and holding suspects without trial have been made against Erdogan’s government. And now, it has been alleged that Turkey is arresting women accused of links to the Gülen movement immediately after they give birth.
Hizmet Movement is not interested in attaining political power in Turkey or elsewhere in the world
[Erdogan] has called Hizmet a state within a state, which to me is a strange characterization. To me, that’s like saying that the Catholics are a state within a state in America, or the Jews, a state within a state in America. Those kinds of statements are derogatory, they’re pejoratives. Catholics have a right to seek influence in America; Jews have a right to seek influence in America, that’s how we operate here.
Dismissed policeman detained while applying to post-coup rights commission
I.K., a former deputy police chief in Gaziantep’s Sehitkamil district who was dismissed in the government’s post-coup crackdown, was detained when he visited a local State of Emergency (OHAL) commission in Sivas to reclaim his rights.
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.
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