Coup and Countercoup in Turkey

The coup was doomed to fail from the beginning. To say it was amateurish would be insulting to all amateurs. Assuming there were some sympathizers of Gülen within the armed forces, the sheer size of the post-coup dismissals make absolutely no sense.

Land of Private high school declared green space

The İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) recently declared a piece of land on which a private high school had been being built to be a green space. The high school is a branch of Fatih Koleji, a private institution affiliated with the Hizmet movement inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Post-Kemalist Turkey and the Gülen Movement

The Gülen Movement was known for the cool-headed decisions it took at the risk of severe criticism during Turkey’s most difficult times. Today, it would be expected that the same movement will display a similar rationality in a changing Turkey.

Gülen’s lawyers: PM’s only correct statement is that he visited Gülen

Lawyers representing Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen dismissed on Friday remarks made by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that Gülen rejected an invitation from Davutoğlu to return to Turkey on the grounds that “it was not time yet.”

Almost 1,000 officers removed from post in İzmir, Ankara

Around 700 police officers, including four deputy chiefs and 70 high-ranking officials, were removed from their posts at the İzmir Police Department and reassigned to different positions on Thursday morning and removals continued later in the afternoon with 207 more officers

Corruption investigation: Questions that will hound PM Erdoğan

Everyone is wondering now what is behind the corruption investigation, and the first “suspect” to come to many minds is the Islamist Gülen movement. Tensions between this group and the AKP have been rising over the years, and boiled over recently due to the prep-school issue – a matter that has received wide media coverage.

The Gülen movement denies this but the vitriol flying between daily Zaman, which is close to Gülen, and Yeni Şafak, which is staunchly pro-AKP, is enough to give one a sense of the bitter struggle involved.