Date posted: August 6, 2016
Fethullah Gulen Talked to Kurdish TV NRT on Kurds, human rights and Erdogan.
Tags: Asia | Defamation of Hizmet | Fethullah Gulen | Interviews with Fethullah Gulen | Iraq | Kurdish Issue | Military coups in Turkey |

ÖZCAN KELEŞ* Fethullah Gülen is many things at once and it is this combination of characteristics, abilities and qualifications, some of which have hitherto seemed mutually exclusive, that marks him out from the rest and has provided him with a transformative edge. It is the combination of three particular characteristics that have enabled Gülen to […]

Outside the Karachi Press Club, Turkish residents release doves as a sign of peace; 25 Turkish teachers plea for safety in Pakistan. These Turkish families have lived here for over two decades, teaching at a network of international schools led by Fethullah Gülen, a moderate Islamic cleric from Turkey, who currently lives in the US.

The Turkish government is in a drive to deport all Nigerian students at universities linked to Fethullah Gulen’s Hizmet movement. Gulen is an Islamic cleric whom President Erdogan of Turkey considers as his strongest rival. After the botched July 15 coup, Erdogan launched a massive crackdown on the investments of Gulen’s followers. He blamed Gulen for the coup, but he has denied the allegation.

The events of that night [the coup attempt] could be called as a serious terror coup. I categorically reject such accusations. The claim that I convinced the 8th biggest army in the world from 6000 miles away against its own government is an incredible slander. I would like those who are responsible for this coup attempt, regardless of their identities, to receive the punishment they deserve after a fair trial.

Some prominent figures who have little knowledge of the Hizmet movement, including Graham Watson of Britain, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff of Germany and Hélène Flautre of France, find Erdoğan’s hate discourse against the Hizmet movement unacceptable.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who launched an all-out war against the faith-based Gülen movement in late 2013, kept his strategy to eliminate the group a secret until he decided to sever ties with it completely, Yeni Asya daily Editor-in-Chief Kazım Güleçyüz has said, adding the elimination strategy was state-sponsored.
