Turkey’s Crackdown Extends to Taipei

Participants of the Formosa Institute’s international conference on the Hizmet movement are shown at National Taiwan University in Taipei. Photo credit: The China Post)
Participants of the Formosa Institute’s international conference on the Hizmet movement are shown at National Taiwan University in Taipei. Photo credit: The China Post)


Date posted: August 4, 2016

Edward White

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime, which has blamed the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen for last month’s failed coup attempt, has purged tens of thousands of people linked to the “Gulenist” movement – the Turkish government now calls the group the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization, or FETO.

Who exactly is being targeted? As former CIA official Graham E. Fuller, wrote in The Huffington Post, Gulen operates a civil movement called “Hizmet,” which translates to “Service,” and probably has more than one million followers or sympathizers who are not under centralized control.

The group’s exact scope and ambit is difficult to define; people and organizations who say they are “Gulen-inspired” operate around world, often focusing on cross-cultural, business and education ties with Turkey.

As of late July, the number of people thought to be affected by the crackdown in Turkey totaled almost 60,000 – including 21,000 teachers whose licenses were revoked, 8,000 police removed from their posts, more than 250 staff from the prime minister’s office, as well as judges and soldiers, according to the BBC.

Around the world, Turkish diplomats have relayed Erdogan’s line – that plotters in the military linked to FETO tried to “overthrow the democratically-elected government and the constitutional order in Turkey.”

In Taipei, the “Gulen-inspired” Formosa Institute is feeling Erdogan’s reach.

Burhan Cikili is an academic and vice-chair of the institute. The organization, which has a plush office on the 21st floor of a central Taipei office building, is something of a local think-tank linking Taiwan and Turkey. It holds conferences, seminars and lectures, and collaborates with local universities and institutions. It says it is mainly funded by local Taiwanese and Turkish businesspeople.

Cikili told The News Lens International he is confident Taiwanese understand the line being pushed by Turkish officials – including the representatives in Taiwan who are understood to have told local media about the Formosa Institute’s Gulen ties – is “slander.”

In response to questions about the institute being now linked to an official – in Turkey at least – terrorist organization, Cikili points to the numerous lectures and presentations the organization has held on the issue of Islamic terrorism in recent years. And he says most of the people prominently associated with the group are Taiwanese, and none have asked to have their names formally removed from any public material linking them to the institute since the July 15 coup.

However, financially, and in political capital terms, the organization is taking a hit.

Previously the institute and the Turkish office in Taipei had a solid working relationship. Cikili says financial and practical support for the institute has declined amid pressure from Turkish officials in Taiwan, a trend that started after the alliance between Erdogan and Gulen broke down in 2013. This likely reflects the fact that some supporters are toeing the official Turkish line for business reasons.

Cikili says the latest coup attempt in Turkey will only worsen the institute’s financial situation.

“We, of course, will feel the impact,” he says.

While he is defensive of Gulen – the person and the movement – and keen to push the narrative that Erdogan may have had a hand in the coup himself, Cikili for the most part appears despondent about Turkey’s bleak outlook. He notes that it was only recently Turkey’s economy was developing rapidly – in 2011 it was the second fastest after China among major emerging market economies.

“After this coup attempt I am not sure if we will have another election or not,” he says.

He is personally not afraid to return to Turkey, but is worried about his friends and family at home. There are hundreds of Gulenist schools across Turkey, and Gulenist media is widely circulated, which puts huge numbers of Turkish people at risk of being labelled as part of a terrorist group.

For Taiwan in particular, Cikili says it is “very sad” to see the tourism ties, which had been strong between the two countries, come to a halt as most countries warn citizens not to travel to Turkey.

Source: The News Lens , August 4, 2016


Related News

Turkish Cultural Center aims to bridge East and West

PAUL GRONDAHL Staff writer MENANDS — The Turks are rising in the Capital Region. In the past six months, Turks have bought a building on Broadway in Menands, renovated it and created the Turkish Cultural Center of Albany with the help of the organization’s first paid full-time employee. Once limited mostly to a few graduate […]

Turkey’s Main Opposition Party Reiterates In Report July 15 Was ‘Controlled’ Coup Attempt

A report drafted by Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on a failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016 has repeated an earlier claim made by the party’s leader suggesting that the coup attempt was a “controlled” one and that there were some Turkish authorities who knew about the coup plans but did not take any measures to prevent it.

Kimse Yok Mu continues to care for needy Pakistanis

The foundation gave away sewing machines to 125 women, mainly widowed. The volunteers currently provide fabric backup and thus enable the families to make their living. The foundation will also offer 3-month-long sewing training on demand. Additionally, a total of 50 wheelchairs were delivered to those in need in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The donations were well-received by the locals, putting a smile on the faces.

Turkish PM admits did not know identity of putschists when he blamed Gülen movement

A year after a failed coup on July 15, 2016, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said he did not know who had attempted to carry out the coup when they blamed the Gülen movement, in an interview published in Hürriyet.

Astonishing questions about the failed coup attempt in Turkey

Critics claim that this failed coup attempt was simply a pretext to legitimize arbitrary authoritarian practices, eliminate all the dissent while filling the state apparatus with staunch supporters, and start an ethnic cleansing against sympathizers of the Gulen movement and Alawites.

Gülen makes donation to needy Myanmar Muslims

Turkish Islamic scholar and intellectual Fethullah Gülen has donated $10,000 to support Myanmar Muslims who have long faced discrimination in the Asian country and have been targeted in killings by local Buddhists. Gülen donated $10,000, earned from the sales of his books and audio recordings, to leading Turkish charity association Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody […]

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

‘Gülen movement has a specific mission’

Awards from Romanian Prime Minister to Turkish School Students

Another Victim of Erdogan’s Wrath

Rainer Hermann interviews Fethullah Gulen – Do good and let it unfold

Students from Turkish Schools in Thailand Visited the Minister of Trade at His Home

Kimse Yok Mu’s permanent assistance continues in the Philippines

Gülen and the AK Party: A common quest for democracy or something more? (1)

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News