A large-scale dark propaganda campaign has been conducted against the Hizmet movement and Gülen by some circles close to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, particularly since December of 2013, when a corruption scandal implicating three Cabinet ministers’ sons, many state bureaucrats and some well-known businessmen erupted. Government officials have accused the Hizmet movement of participating in a plot and using the corruption investigation to damage the government.

Addressing his party members at a rally in Burdur province on Thursday, Erdoğan once again described the movement as a “parallel structure” within the state. Asking people to stop reading newspapers that are close to the Hizmet movement, Erdoğan also called on people at the rally not to attend schools and dershanes — private exam preparatory schools — connected to the movement.

On previous occasions, Erdoğan had described the movement with various defamatory expressions, such as “the parallel state,” “gang,” “virus,” “secret organization” and even “Hashashin.” The Hashashin were a shadowy historical group that carried out politically motivated assassinations in the time of the Seljuk Empire.