Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen gives first TV interview in 16 years

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. (Photo: Today's Zaman, Selahattin Sevi)
Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. (Photo: Today's Zaman, Selahattin Sevi)


Date posted: January 27, 2014

Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, whose movement is currently at odds with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the ongoing corruption probe, has given his in his first broadcast interview in 16 years to BBC Turkish.

Pennsylvania-based Gülen has not given a single broadcast interview since arriving in the U.S. in the late 1990s.

Responding to widespread assumptions that he ordered his followers in senior positions in the police and judiciary to launch the investigations into alleged high-level government corruption, the 74-year-old issued strong denials of such claims.

Gülen said the reactions of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which have included the sacking a number of police commissioners and the arrest of some of Erdoğan’s allies, were “anti-democratic.” He added that some of the demoted, sacked or reassigned members of the police and judiciary “were not linked to us,” rejecting the claims that his movement had orchestrated the probes and arrests.

“These moves were made to make our movement appear bigger than it already is and to frighten people about this non-existent phantom threat,” said Gülen.

He stressed that the bribery and corruption claims against the government were “real.”

“It is certain that there is a corruption. Everyone accepts that. The public, the elite, intellectuals, everyone sees the reality here. No one can change that,” said Gülen.

Erdoğan has repeatedly accused the Gülen Movement of orchestrating the probes in an attempt to topple his government. He has denounced the existence of a “parallel state,” referring to Gülen’s followers, who are known to hold key positions inside the police and the judiciary, allegedly taking decisions upon the movement’s orders.

The government has responded to the graft scandal with a massive purge of the police, and with the preparation of a judicial bill that has drawn controversy for increasing the executive’s control over the judiciary.

“It is not possible for these judges and prosecutors to receive orders from me. I have no relation with them. I don’t know even 0.1 percent of them,” Gülen told the BBC.

Corruption and bribery no longer a crime in Turkey: Gülen

“People in the judiciary and the police carried out investigations and launched this case, as their duties normally require. Apparently they weren’t informed of the fact that corruption and bribery have ceased to be criminal acts in Turkey,” he added, with sarcasm.

Gülen also claimed that the government had underlined the existence of a “parallel state” within the state in order to cover up the corruption and bribery allegations. “Only the parallel state is emphasized. Those bribes, illegal tenders are not discussed and are attempted to be represented as ordinary things,” he said.

Speaking about the process started by the government to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem, Gülen said he had never been against holding negotiations with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“There can be negotiations with the organization [PKK]. But the state’s honor should be protected,” he said.

According to Gülen, imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was “uneasy with what we are doing with the Kurdish people” through the extension of his movement’s schools in the eastern part of the country, which is largely populated by Kurds.

“They didn’t want our activities to prevent young people joining the militants in the mountains. Their politics is to keep enmity between Kurdish and Turkish people,” Gülen said, adding that the establishment of schools and investment in the region was wrongly regarded “as if it was against the peace process.”

He was elusive about whether he would vote for the AKP in the upcoming local elections, or for Erdoğan in the presidential elections, stressing that he had not decided to make any statement about the elections yet.

“If I were to say anything to people, I may say that people should vote for those who are respectful to democracy, the rule of law, and who get on well with people. Telling or encouraging people to vote for a party would be an insult to peoples’ intellect. Everybody very clearly sees what is going on … I haven’t even decided to say anything to that effect,” Gülen said.

Asked about the heightening of tensions between Turkey and Israel in recent years, Gülen suggested the government had made mistakes. “They try to portray us as a pro-Israeli movement, in the sense that we have a higher regard for them than our nation. We are accepting them as a people, as part of the people of the world,” he said.

The Islamic scholar also indicated that his movement’s support for the controversial building of an Alevi worship place (Cemevi) alongside a mosque in Ankara, may have been a mistake. “We believed that this would be for the unity with our Alevi brothers in Turkey. We might be wrong about that. But many people approved of it,” he said.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News , January 27, 2014


Related News

The Gülen community and the AKP

TAHA AKYOL The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), which is in line with Fethullah Gülen, has issued an announcement on relations with the ruling party. It is certain that Gülen made the last retouches on the text himself. Gülen defines the movement shortly as “Hizmet” (translated roughly as “service” in English). I asked those who […]

Fethullah Gulen, the man rushing to put out the fire

Salih Can “On condition that the national honor is not disrespected, no effort should be spared to establish peace among groups under threat of split within as Alevi-Sunni, Kurd-Turk and Laz-Circassian” Fethullah Gulen Sivan Perver’s view of Fethullah Gulen Sivan Perver’s words reflected the truth when he said “The Honorable Gulen’s opinions are pretty much well-intentioned. […]

Gülen, Hizmet, the state and the AKP

Gülen has placed much emphasis on education. With a new ijtihad (independent reasoning), he always stated that instead of building a mosque, religious businessmen must establish secular schools that will educate the future’s engineers, doctors, lawyers, journalists and yes, police, prosecutors and judges.

A Turkish coup, a family torn apart, a dramatic escape on foot: ‘Can you believe the things we went through?’

She could stay in Turkey where she might end up imprisoned, at risk of torture and sexual assault, and separated from her young children. Or she could take them on a dangerous journey, with no guarantee of survival.

Censored by theft: Man caught stealing copies of Zaman daily

In the video footage, the young man is seen stealing three Zaman newspapers placed in the mail boxes of an apartment building. When asked by the subscriber who was filming why he was stealing the newspapers, the thief said his father was the AK Party’s Beylikdüzü provincial chairman and that his father had initiated the campaign against Zaman because it is defaming the party.

How does PM Erdoğan hurt the liberal pious of Turkey?

Turkey has been vigorously debating the nature of its democracy and popular Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling style, which has increasingly authoritarian tendencies, as never before since the Gezi Park protests in May. From my perspective, the Gezi protests, on which everyone was almost forced to take sides, is a grey area since both the government and the protesters made their share of mistakes.

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

‘A bridge should not demolish other bridges,’ says scholar Gülen

Too Good to Be True

Australian Relief Organisation awarded “Letter of Appreciation” by the Cambodian Ministry of Rural Development

Students give International Turkish Olympiad a moving sendoff

Turks threatened over alleged links to the Gülen movement find a safe haven in Greece

Turkey’s spying imams also active in Norway: monitoring group

Turkey will hurt own interests if gov’t shuts down Kimse Yok Mu

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News