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.
AK Party founder: I don’t believe claims of parallel state
Yaşar Yakış, former foreign minister and a founding member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), criticized the party on Monday, saying he does not believe in the existence of a “parallel state,” a term used by the AK Party to describe followers of the faith-based Hizmet movement, which the government alleges to have formed an illegitimate structure within the state.
Gulen movement is of high interest to Moroccans
Morocco is among the first Arab countries where Turkish schools were established. The nation’s prominent scholars like Prof. Abbadi are closely following Fethullah Gulen, a religious scholar, who, with a civilization, individual and education-centered approach -rather than a political one- based on tolerance, offers the most effective cures for the Muslim world.
Turkey as a “serial” human rights derogator
The past couple of months have been tumultuous in Turkey. In short order, an ill-conceived military coup was followed by popular mass protest, the quick return of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to power, and a wave of repression ranging from military and judicial purges, to state restrictions on a panoply of basic human rights protections, to allegations of “widespread human rights abuses” by state actors.
Purge-victim family drowns in the Aegean Sea off Turkey
A Turkish family of five has reportedly drowned after a boat capsized in the Aegean Sea, off the western coast of Turkey, according to several Turkish media outlets. The victims have reportedly been sought by the Turkish government over their links to the Gülen group.
Gray domination’ and Turkey’s civil rights challenge
The Hizmet movement, the largest civil society group in Turkey, inspired by Fethullah Gülen, is active in around 150 countries. Hizmet is marked by outstanding schools, dialogue initiatives and relief organizations. Its greatest achievement, however, is the ability to remain independent at all times
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According to a new book, the Turkish Revenge Brigade planned an assassination against Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen during the days surrounding the Feb. 28, 1997 military coup, when Gülen was closely followed by the West Study Group (BÇG), which was established by the Turkish Armed Forces to carry on the fight against reactionaryism and kept records of the ideological and religious background of academics and universities during the Feb. 28 military intervention process.
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