Turkish daily exposes secret plot against Gülen endorsed by gov’t

Taraf daily published NSC document revealing secret plot against Gülen. (Photo: Today's Zaman)
Taraf daily published NSC document revealing secret plot against Gülen. (Photo: Today's Zaman)


Date posted: November 28, 2013

A secret national security document recently discovered by a Turkish daily has revealed that Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government signed up to a planned crackdown on the Hizmet or Gülen movement.

The Taraf daily published a document on Wednesday prepared by the National Security Council (MGK) on Aug. 25, 2004, persuading the government to implement a series of measures to curb the activities of the Gülen movement. It advises the government to adopt legal measures that would impose harsh penalties on Gülen-affiliated institutions.

The two-page document was signed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, foreign minister of the time Abdullah Gül, then-president Ahmet Necdet Sezer, cabinet members, Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök, Land Forces Commander Aytaç Yalman, Naval Forces Commander Adm. Özden Örnek, Air Forces Commander Gen. İbrahim Fırtına and Gen. Şener Eruygur.

The document, identified as MGK decision No. 481, asked the government to develop an action plan to pursue the MGK’s recommendations and instructed the Prime Ministry Monitoring Council (BTK) to coordinate the ministries and monitor whether the steps are being implemented.

The MGK decision urges the Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry and National Intelligence Organization (MİT) to closely monitor and report on the activities of the Gülen movement at home and abroad. It advises the government to instruct the Interior Ministry and Education Ministry to investigate and monitor schools affiliated with the Gülen movement and report their activities to the BTK.

The document states that the government must ensure the financial activity of Gülen-affiliated business people is monitored thorough the Finance Ministry’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK). The MGK wants the Education Ministry to investigate Gülen schools as well.

It also asks then-foreign minister Gül to cancel his earlier instructions to Turkish missions abroad to help the network of National View (Millî Görüş) and Gülen schools.

The document also comments on the psychological aspects of an operation against the Gülen movement in terms of defamation tactics.

The MGK is the top state body created by the 1960 military coup. It was seen as a shadow government while the military was in power. Furthermore, it ruled the country directly from 1980 to 1983 before transferring power to the civilian government.

Yet, the military became part of the executive branch through the MGK, joining the president and a committee of ministers. It became the final authority in decisions on a wide range of issues, including law, the economy, education, rights and freedoms. Though its decisions were expressed as advice on paper, they behaved as direct orders to the government.

The document have sparked outrage in Turkey with opposition parties criticizing the government for lying to Turkish people while intellectuals slamming the government for endorsing MGK decision that was seen as plotting against the country’s citizens.

The main opposition party Republican Peoples’ Party (PKK) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said the document exposed the double-dealing face of politics the government has been pursuing. He said the government has been contradicting itself with what it has been saying all along, stressing that Prime Minister Erdoğan signed the document but then said completely opposite things to the Turkish people. “The main rule for a politician should be a telling the truth to his/her people. Politician should be after a truth”, he explained.

Yalçın Akdoğan, the AK party deputy and close aide to Erdoğan, admitted that the document is authentic but denied that the government has implemented the MGK decision. “MGK decision of 2004 was considered as null and void, no cabinet decision was taken on that, and no step was taken whatsoever”, he said in a Twitter message.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç also voiced similar remarks, subtly confirming the authenticity of the document but saying that the government has never taken steps to realize what was prescribed to the government against Gülen and his activities.

He said he cannot deny or confirm the report because “he was not then in the meeting.” Arınç yet said he also didn’t feel the necessity to dig into that because the prime minister or other officials may make a statement later today.

Arınç said not a single document endorsed by the MGK was realized in the past ten years and that the government has not done anything against “religious people or groups.” He noted that even if such a decision was taken by the MGK, it was a recommendation to the government and that “government had not realized it.”

“As someone who witnessed that, I can say that this was not implemented,” Arınç added, referring to the document.

Source: Today's Zaman , November 28, 2013


Related News

An interview at a party-state

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s witch-hunt campaign to find and eliminate people who are sympathizer of the Hizmet movement and not sympathizer of the government was reflected in interviews that were organized by the Ministry of Education last month. It seems Turkey has totally become a party-state.

A Comparative Approach to Islam and Democracy

Religion, particularly Islam, has become one of the most difficult subject areas to tackle in recent years. Contemporary culture, whether approached from the perspective of anthropology or theology, psychology or psychoanalysis, evaluates religion with empirical methods. On the one hand, religion is an inwardly experienced and felt phenomenon, one mostly related to life’s permanent aspects.

Bank Asya recovers from gov’t provocation

The clampdown on the Bank Asya first started with a defamation campaign run by pro-government media outlets and was later followed by a claim by Interior Minister Efkan Ala, who asserted that the bank had made extraordinary profits on the foreign currency market. All these allegations were refuted by the bank, which published their currency transactions; the central bank has confirmed that there has been no wrongdoing by the bank.

Erdoğan admits calling Habertürk executive to change reporting during Gezi protests

Erdoğan’s interference in a news channel’s reporting by instructing a top manager at the channel to immediately remove a news ticker, an act exposed by a voice recording, has been met with serious criticism from several political parties as well as society.

Erdoğan now at odds with once-closest ally

Those who have an interest in Turkish politics may have been a little confused for the last few weeks, observing the row between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) government and the social movement of religious scholar Fethullah Gülen, or the “Hizmet” (Service) movement as they preferred to be called. The row is over the closure of private prep schools (“dershane” in Turkish).

4 Turks deported from Saudi Arabia sent to jail over donations to Gülen movement

An Ankara court sent to jail 4 out of 16 Turkish nationals who were deported back to home from Saudi Arabia as part of Turkey’s ever-growing crackdown against the Gülen movement that that has spread to overseas in the recent past.

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

Turkish minister’s leaked emails show pro-gov’t figure has eye on Gülen-linked dormitory

Turkish schools substantiate our close mutual cooperation

US under Trump still highly unlikely to extradite Gülen

Dissidents of the Turkish government are living in fear in Canada

Kimse Yok Mu heals the wounds of flood victims in Sudan

More Divisions, More Democracy

Is the Hizmet movement resisting normalization?

Copyright 2024 Hizmet News