Turkey’s Gulen movement sees a smear campaign

Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen
Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen


Date posted: April 26, 2012

ATUL ANEJA, April 26, 2012

As the endgame in Turkey’s transition to a mature democracy nears, media attacks have sharpened against the Gulen movement — a mass mobilisation vehicle that has, over the years, openly and peacefully challenged the concentration of privileges among the country’s military-backed old guard. Simultaneously, the movement has offered a socio-political alternative based on inclusivity, growth and societal harmony.

On Tuesday, The Journalists and Writers Foundation, affiliated to the Gulen movement, dismissed media allegations that the movement’s founder, Fethullah Gulen had supported the so-called “soft coup” of February 1997, which led to the fall of the government of the former Turkish Prime Minister, Necmettin Erbakan.

The attacks on the Gulen movement have not been restricted to Turkish media alone. The International Herald Tribune (IHT) recently ran an article in which critics of the movement accused Mr. Gulen’s followers of overwhelming the core organs of government, which, they allege, have begun to systematically target its opponents.

Far from becoming authoritarian, Mr. Gulen’s supporters say their movement is being subjected to an escalating smear campaign.

They say the fierce and intensifying assault on the movement has a context. It comes at a time when investigations in the country are picking up steam and exposing in graphic detail the conspiracy by the military-backed “deep state” network, Ergenekon, to stage a coup and subvert the promising democratic process. In a detailed rebuttal of the IHT piece, Bulent Kenes, Editor-in-Chief of the widely-circulated daily Today’s Zaman,points out that “some people and groups who are being investigated by prosecutors and courts on charges of having shady ties with the Turkish deep state are trying to carve some protection for themselves and garner public support by falsely claiming that they undergo these investigations because of their criticisms against Mr. Gulen”.

Mr. Gulen is not new to controversy, or worse. For eight years, till his final acquittal in 2008, he was tried over allegations of undermining the secular fundamentals of the Turkish state. Some scholars, such as James C. Harrington, are of the view that Mr. Gulen’s “trial has great ramifications both in and outside Turkey because it involves the rise of moderate, democratic movement in the Sufi Islamic tradition and the effort to suppress it”.

Mr. Gulen’s ideas of democracy, secularism, public service and business enterprise, immersed in the moderate cultural medium of Sufi Islam have been vigorously rejected also by proponents of Islamist extremism.

Thus, the Gulen movement finds itself in the crosshairs of both hard-line secularists and the Islamists.

Analysing the contradiction, some say that behind its soft veneer, the Gulen movement has been, in large measure, responsible for the fundamental social turnaround that challenged the status quo.

The Gulen movement naturally attached itself to grassroots business enterprises which had emerged mainly in Anatolia. The rise of the Anatolian Tigers, and the new culture of entrepreneurship, piety and orientation towards the international market are seen by some, as an expression of a new Turkish renaissance.

In the words of Vali Nasr, author of The Rise of Islamic Capitalism:Why the New Muslim Middle Class Is the Key to Defeating Extremism, Anatolian businessmen “combine religion, hard work and economic innovation in much the same way as did Calvinist Burghers of northern Europe in the sixteenth century when capitalism was just starting out”.

It is this new entrepreneurial class, riding on Mr. Gulen’s ideas, and looking for larger economic and political space, that has seriously challenged the old establishment, and earned its wrath. It is therefore not surprising, some analysts say, that the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the political face of the assertion by the Anatolian Tigers, and the Gulen movement are facing such unprecedented vitriol from a fading bourgeoisie that is still unwilling to throw in the towel.

Source: The Hindu http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article3356870.ece


Related News

Erdoğan distorts Gülen’s NYT op-ed, says it is about Bank Asya operation

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has presented a distorted interpretation of an op-ed written by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen that was published in The New York Times, claiming the op-ed is about the takeover of the board of Islamic lender Bank Asya by Turkey’s banking watchdog.

Is the March 30 referendum in danger?

It has become very evident that some businessmen who benefitted illegally in major state tenders acquired independent media, a person very close to Erdoğan was appointed as the editor-in-chief and that this media organ became a mouthpiece of Erdoğan. Independent civil society groups such as the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD) and the Hizmet movement are constantly depicted as traitors and the puppets of international dark forces by Erdoğan.

Hizmet and self-criticism

Fethullah Gülen stated a few days ago that he made a mistake by supporting the Justice and Development Party (AKP) during the 2010 referendum campaign. Even though, as of today, I do not think that supporting the constitutional amendment package was wrong in itself, it seems that this package has paved the way for the AKP’s growing semi-despotism.

Lawyer Karahan: Hate crimes against Hizmet can be prosecuted at ECtHR, ICC

The Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) has taken over management control of some of the privileged shares of Bank Asya as part of a government-operated crackdown on institutions affiliated with the Gülen movement, also known as Hizmet, and shareholders will be filing a lawsuit against the action, but this week’s guest for Monday Talk has said it is likely that the case will end up at the European Court of Human Rights and even at the International Criminal Court.

Gülen’s lawyer warns about possible doctored tapes

Lawyer Nurullah Albayrak in a written statement referred to lies and defamation about Gülen in the media which have become widespread and said Gülen’s phone calls have been illegally wiretapped. “These calls are reported in the media without taking any ethical principles into consideration,” he said, adding that it is very likely there will be edited phone calls as part of a black propaganda campaign against Gülen.

Ankara forces Arbil to close Turkish schools in KRG

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asked Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani to close Turkish schools in the autonomous region of Iraq during Barzani’s visit to Turkey in mid-February, according to sources close to the KRG prime minister.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

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

In Case You Missed It

Government circular bans Gülen followers from collecting sacrificed animal skins

Russian analyst: Turkey’s claim Gülen was behind envoy’s killing insult to ‘our intelligence’

Civil war in Mali did not discourage the Turkish school teachers

Gulen movement’s three pillars

Fethullah Gülen: President Erdogan is suffering from power poisoning

2-month-old denied breast milk for 17 days while under detention with mother

TUSKON event to yield $350 mln in trade with Africa in one day

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News