KCK, Gülen, AKP: shifting alliances?

(Photo: Cihan, Sinan Kabatepe)
(Photo: Cihan, Sinan Kabatepe)


Date posted: November 29, 2013

MUSTAFA GÜRBÜZ
Regarding the heated prep school debate, Justice and Development Party (AKP) Ardahan Deputy Orhan Atalay explicitly spelled out the AKP- Gülen tension: “Just as the KCK [the Kurdistan Communities Union, an umbrella organization that contains the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)] is a parallel structure within the state; prep schools have become the same thing.” According to this view, (1) prep schools are considered the bastions of the Gülen movement, (2) the movement is a parallel structure within the state, and (3) the government’s action against the movement stems from a national security concern.

It was especially interesting to hear the aforementioned account from an AKP deputy elected in an eastern province because the AKP’s biggest competitor in the region, the pro-Kurdish party, has expressed similar arguments. In his interview with Hasan Cemal, Murat Karayılan summarized this sentiment very well:

“Fethullahists [Gülen movement supporters] are trying to settle into the state hierarchy; this is why they have become close to the Justice and Development Party (AKP). They have gained power. They are getting support from the United States as well. The USA puts forth the Fethullahists into the Islamic World…They say ‘We are also against the PKK; we’re also pro-state,’ and thereby they infiltrate the state…They’re [widespread] among the AKP supporters.”

In electoral campaigns, pro-Kurdish party officials referred to Gülen organizations and AKP policies interchangeably. They got the picture right: The Gülen movements’ grassroots influence among Kurds has been translated into pro-AKP votes in the past decade. That’s why some religious Kurds feel perplexed as the AKP moves to ban prep schools. For them, the AKP officials shoot themselves in the foot.

If you are following the social media debates, you will notice that the Gülen activists place a special emphasis on the role of prep schools in Turkey’s eastern provinces. Clearly, prep schools are the bastions of the Gülen movement in the region. In the eyes of the pro-Kurdish movement, however, the situation is more complex: The Gülen-affiliated prep schools are also the bastions of the AKP in the region, materialized in the electoral competition. The closure of these schools would bring a double win for the BDP: a strong blow to its main rival in the civil society (i.e. the Gülen movement) and a decrease in pro-AKP votes. Chairman Selahattin Demirtaş has already expressed their full support for the closure bill.

Would the AKP-Gülen rift bring a shifting alliance regarding the Kurdish issue? In Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) circles, rumors linking the Oslo negotiations with the PKK and the government’s decision on the prep schools are abundant. The AKP leaders, of course, deny these empty allegations. Yet, the fight over rumors does not change the current alliance between AKP and BDP on curbing the Gülen movement’s influence in the region. As Kurdish intellectual and writer Ümit Fırat puts it: “If the prep schools are shut down, it is undoubtedly the PKK who will be most happy about that.”

It is stunning to watch triads. As renowned sociologist Georg Simmel pointed out in his treatise on social geometry, one common observation is that — in any group of three people/groups — two will tend to unite against the other one. This tendency of alliance formation makes triads a very unstable grouping, which may lead to conflict.

Source: Today's Zaman , November 29, 2013


Related News

Turkish Olympiad most effective promotion for Turkey, says FM

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has praised the 11th International Turkish Olympiad, a festival that celebrates the Turkish language, as the “most effective” instrument for promoting Turkey, while receiving students visiting Turkey as part of the Olympiad.   Davutoğlu said he has been a fan of the Turkish Olympiads for a long time, noting that […]

Smear campaign against Gülen today harsher than in Feb. 28 era

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who has inspired a worldwide religious network that defends peaceful coexistence through dialogue and education, is currently being targeted in a government-sponsored smear campaign that is reminiscent of, and even harsher than, the Feb. 28, 1997 coup period.

Police raid Gülen-inspired schools in Adana despite ministry regulation

The Adana Police Department early on Thursday coordinated with inspectors from several ministries and other institutions to conduct raids on private schools, dormitories and prep schools established by volunteers inspired by the Gülen movement, despite regulations stating that only the Education Ministry may perform such inspections.

Pro-gov’t media continues smear campaign against Hizmet movement

In order to defame the Hizmet movement, A Haber — a member of the government-designed “pool media,” created through funds raised by various businessmen to protect the government’s interests — has described a Felicity Party (SP) election campaign conducted by women in the province of Hatay as “black propaganda” against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

In Erdogan regime western-oriented intellectuals, bureaucrats, liberals, Kurds, civil society activists in mortal danger

Those in prison—educated, Western-oriented intellectuals and bureaucrats, liberals, Kurds, civil society activists, and supporters of exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen—are in mortal danger. When blood flows from the prisons, it will be no accident nor should anyone believe Erdogan’s security forces were simply reacting to a crisis.

Abant Platform “Africa: Between Experience And Inspiration” Final Declaration

– We, the participants of the 29th Abant Platform Forum on “Africa: Between Experience and Inspiration”, held at Abant/Turkey on 28-30 June 2013, hereby, welcome the initiative of Journalists and Writers Foundation/Abant Platform, for a long and lasting partnership, based on mutual respect, goodwill, compassion and understanding between the Peoples of Africa and the People […]

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

Purge of ‘parallel state’ or legitimizing discrimination

Real Islam can eliminate radical groups in Islamic world, say analysts

Turkish family detained in Qatar as Erdogan steps up crackdown on Gulenists abroad

Opposition does not believe Gulen movement was behind the coup attempt

Archbishop Tutu receives Gülen peace award

Romanian Judge Blocks Extradition of Second Arrested ‘Gulenist’

Review of Walter Wagner’s Beginnings and Endings: Fethullah Gulen’s Vision for Today’s World

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News