Turkey’s prominent journalist Fehmi Koru answered Ece Uner’s questions on Haberturk TV. He also made comments about the AK Party-Gulen Movement conflict and the probability that the Gulen Movement may engage in active party politics.
Koru said, “What you call as the movement is a civil society organization. They let politicians do the daily politics. They have political opinions and they try to influence politics. But they do this by having relations with politicians as they did in the past. It is against the nature of the movement to impose any opinion on the government. If there is sharp irreconcilable disagreement between the movement and the AK Party, they may found a political party. But if they do so, they will lose the advantage of being a [civil society] movement. They will face more criticism when they found a political party.
Esteemed Fethullah Gülen frequently underlines: “Forget getting a share of political power. We cannot accept control of the world even if it is presented to us on a gold tray because this would create disappointment among those actively supporting our cause. And people would think ‘They’ve also been deceived by the love of position and sense of interest. All these [voluntary] efforts were for the sake of getting a share in the political power’.”
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.
Fethullah Gulen: From Izmir to the Global Hizmet Movement
Gulen’s name has progressively reached a wider Western audience. But, let us note that most of news coverage paints Gulen within a political narrative — forgetting (or ignoring) four decades of civil society advocacy, education and dialogue activities and support for democracy and human rights. There is more to Gulen than this current political paradigm. Some history and perspective will help set the facts straight.
Bruised by lavish palace, Erdoğan pictures fake Gülen compound
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made a major push to paint a picture of the compound where Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen lives as a spacious camp in an attempt to contain attacks over his own sumptuous palace, which drew anger from the public, including from within his own party.
Planned prep school ban [in Turkey] disregards basic rights as in single-party era
The government’s intentions to shut down private examination preparation centers [in Turkey] in spite of a strong backlash from educators, economists, students, parents and even terrorism experts brings back memories of the authoritarianism of the early years of the republic, when a single-party regime was in place.
Mischief-makers and the Hizmet movement
Mischief-makers continue to work hard. Every objective conscience sees that the Hizmet movement now has to struggle for its rights and to defend itself against some unjust and fallacious accusations, such as that the Hizmet movement has created a parallel state, that it is an illegal organization and that it is even a junta.
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