Tag: Gulen

General Asymmetrica Rhymes With America

“Probes are ‘asymmetric, psychological,’ says ex-army chief” shouted the headline in the Hurriyet Daily News, another media mouthpiece of the Turkish government, this one for consumption by English speakers. It seems that former Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ claims his recent jailing was designed to dishonor the Turkish Armed forces. “Freedom is not only about being outside,” said the general, “I feel just as free in here.” Surely Başbuğ is joking. There are hundreds of others in jail on trumped up charges, some for almost five years. And the general feels free? Free from what? Responsibility? You, sir, continue to delude yourself. You and your military predecessors and successors are responsible for the demise of Atatürk’s secular republic. You all comprise a long line of general officers who seem to have forgotten what motivated you to the noble endeavor of defending your secular, democratic country.

Generals like Işık Koşaner, who succeeded Başbuğ, and a year later suddenly resigned along with the leaders of the army, navy and air force with the feeble excuse that they could no longer protect their subordinates. This spineless, unexplained act was the final blow that destroyed the Turkish army, and the hope and security of the Turkish people. It was a self-inflicted wound.

Like Yaşar Büyükanıt who asked for a sign of support from the people. Millions of Turks responded. They filled the streets for a series of wildly enthusiastic demonstrations to preserve the secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Soon thereafter Büyükanıt had a secret meeting with the prime minister. He retired and promptly disappeared. Enter Başbuğ.

Like Hilmi Özkök, Büyükanıt’s predecessor, who spent a good deal of his energy redesigning the buttons on the military uniforms, that is, removing Atatürk’s image. He has since specialized in saying very little of relevance. Consulting his profile in Wikipedia reveals the telling remark that he “opposed his peers’ plans to stage a coup.” So much for his leadership skills. Supposedly he now writes poetry.

Like Kenan Evren, a torturer and executioner, a Turkish Pinochet, he was one of America’s “guys” who “did it” for Jimmy Carter with the 1980 US-backed military coup. A professed believer in the enlightened principles of Atatürk, he and his fascist regime instead destroyed them along with many people. He also took up the ‘leftist arts’ in retirement and became a painter.

The tragic fiasco continues. Forget the AKP. It does as its told and is irrelevant in this situation. Ex-army chief Başbuğ, himself, is ASYMMETRIC. He’s in jail. He and his successor and predecessor generals have betrayed the founding principles of the nation. They have dawdled, temporized, rationalized, and collaborated. When the public begged for details and reliable information, the generals spoke in vague generalities. They have tortured. They have executed. And finally they have collapsed in a shameful surrender. Secular Turkey was founded by the military, freeing the Turkish people from hundreds of years of Ottoman incompetence and ignorance. Haven’t any of these senior officers understood Nutuk? It is they, the generals, who have dishonored the Turkish Army. Not the ruling power and certainly not the government’s tragically laughable Alice-in-Wonderland judicial system.

Now these generals can watch the destruction of the Republic in their retirement villas or from their jail cells. Now General Asymmetrica knows how all the leftists felt that his predecessors jailed during the disgraceful USA-inspired coups. Now General Asymmetrica knows that all the secret collaboration with America has yielded bitter fruit indeed. And that all the recent talk about military coup plots has been simply palaver. The real blow delivered to the Turkish nation was the civilian coup, engineered by America’s new “guys,” the AKP. Through the years, the generals collaborated with everyone except their one true ally…the heirs and children of Atatürk. They thought that the secular state could coexist with religion. They failed to protect their troops and failed to know their enemy, the two cardinal principles for an army at war. And for all this they were destroyed. That’s asymmetry. Think about what Atatürk would have done to them all. They would be begging for the days of their youth. That’s the ultimate asymmetry, and it is terrible.

Cem Ryan
Istanbul
12 March 2012

Below is the full text of news article:

Former Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ has described the recent probes that landed him in jail as a “asymmetric, psychological movement to dishonor the Turkish armed forces” in a recent interview. Speaking through his lawyer, the jailed former general told Toygun Atilla of daily Hürriyet that “freedom is not only about being outside.” “I feel just as free in here,” Başbuğ said.
“I fought against unjust slander in the public eyes of the Turkish Armed Forces personnel. And yes, I fought with all my strength against any negative impact that the unity and discipline of the Armed Forces may go through. And yes, I told relative authorities about all the problems we faced, and I, from time to time, told the public about my views. This is what I’ve done, and what I’ve tried to do,” he said.
“Now I see I was jailed, and retired, simply for talking,” Başbuğ said. “This cannot be seen simply as personal. To call the head of the Turkish Armed Forces a terrorist is a heavy charge against the whole of the Armed Forces.”
Başbuğ also said the recent probes were causing the public to have a negative view of the Turkish justice system. It is impossible to avoid seeing that the public conscience is uncomfortable with all this,” he said.

Hurriyet Daily News 11 March 2012

İlker Başbuğ

March 13, 2012
Gulen’s latest book launch celebrated at Istanbul Forum

Journalists, politicians and writers gathered together for a forum in İstanbul on Tuesday to mark the launch of renowned Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen’s latest book, “Yaşatma İdeali,” (The Ideal to Let Others Live).

In his message, Gulen said “As you will agree, a person who only thinks of himself is not a human at all, but a human with a deficiency. The way real humanity can be achieved is through self-sacrifice for others. The value of a person in the eyes of God can be measured by the level of their benevolence. The most obvious sign of a high level of benevolence is sacrificing one’s personal pleasures and joys for the happiness of others.”

January 28, 2012
In the past Turkey was a gendarmerie state: Now it is a police state

Gulenists and the AKP will close the BDP, the main Kurdish party

By Dr Aland Mizell:

While most of the world is busy focusing on the Arab Spring, a possible war on Iran, the US and Europeans debts, world financial markets, and the price of oil, Turkey and Gulenists’ police are busy jailing all the Kurdish intellectuals, journalists, elected leaders, students, and writers. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is strongly backed by the Gulenists, and their media is conducting a dirty campaign against the Kurdish political party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), with a clear motive. It is part of the strategy of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Gulenists against the Kurds’ only representative party, the BDP, with its 36 democratically elected MPs.

The government aims at tarnishing the image and values of the Kurdish political party in the eyes of the Turkish and Kurdish people. These Kurdish elected political leaders are behind bars, and hundreds of others have been in jail for months or in some cases years without convictions. Illegal wiretappings also breach the citizens’ right to privacy. In Turkey’s operations against the Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), many Kurdish journalists have been imprisoned. It is unusual for a democratic country’s police to launch operations against civil society’s organizations and use excessive force against its citizenry. The question must be asked– is Turkey really a democratic country? What has changed since Gulenists and the AKP took over Turkey?

In the past Turkey was a gendarmerie state; the military would do all kinds of illegal activities because no one dared to question them. That is why we saw ‘deep states’ come about in Turkey. So what has changed since the military is essentially gone? Nothing has changed except that Turkey has transformed from a gendarmerie state unquestionably to a police state. Police now exist to defend the Gulenists’ ideology. Today the AKP and Gulenist groups know that closing a party detracts from their good image and yet they want to get rid of the BDP, the only party that represents Kurdish interests and one that has been elected by the more than two million Kurds.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the BDP as an extension of the PKK thereby demonstrating that he does not respect the will of the millions of Kurdish voters. If the BDP is an extension of the terrorist organization, then more than two million people who voted for BDP candidates are terrorists as well. Would Prime Minister put all the Kurds in prison? No.

Here is the contrived rationale behind the Gulenists and the AKP’s dirty game against the Kurds. They know that there is only one party that really represents the Kurdish interests. Further, they know that there is only one party that rejects Gülen’s ideology in southeastern Turkey, and that it is the biggest obstacle to the Gulenists’ ideology being successful. Mr. Gülen himself addressed his followers acknowledging that they failed to assimilate the Kurds and explaining that that’s why they have problems today. Since they cannot close the party, because this punitive action would not be good for Turkey‘s image, they are trying to link the BDP with the KCK and the KCK to the PKK, since the PKK is considered a terror organization. Consequently they can put all the elected Kurdish leaders in prison and pass legislation for them not to run for office again, so that the ruling party can gain time to establish a new Kurdish political party that will agree with the interests of Gülen and then will be loyal to Gülen and his ideology, but will not necessarily defend Kurdish interests.

They probably will endorse Kemal Burkay, a Kurd, but one who agrees with the AKP and the Gulenists’ policies. Remember in Turkey when you say, “I’m a Turk,” you don’t have problems, but when you say, “I’m a Kurd, and I want to have basic rights,” then you become the problem. Mister Burkay understands this.

There is another trap waiting for the Kurds– the Islamic card. Gülen is already using it to recruit many Kurds to his movement. The Islamic regime’s treatment of the Kurds will not be any different from previous regimes’ treatment of them. As mentioned, under them Kurds did not have problems so long as they denied that they were Kurds, and this factor will be the same under the Islamic regime. As long as you do not say, “I am Kurd,” you are welcomed with no problems. Today in Turkey the Kurdish Parliamentarians were democratically elected by the Kurdish people and given a victory, but the Muslim administration is not happy and is using intimidation to attack and put the Kurds in jail one by one, charging them in court, and financially and spiritually harassing them in an attempt to lower their morale, so that they will give up. They are using many kinds of tactics to justify their means.

Purposefully working on a plan to bring in the Kurds, Gülen wants his circles to discuss Kurdish issues rather than Europeans or other scholars. If today Kurds are somewhat known in the international arena, is it because Kurdish lobbyists have carried out many important activities concerning Kurdish issues. Because many Kurds who moved to the West were already older and had a hard time integrating into Western culture, it is important to bring the younger generation into the political arena. The Kurdish government should fund the lobbyists, so that they can focus on lobbying. The Kurds should work together, not just as individuals. For example, the Kurdish problem in Syria should be the same problem as that of the Kurds in Turkey or Iraqi Kurds. I believe nothing is impossible for the Kurdish people to accomplish; if Kurds have enough will, they should always find sufficient means, not excuses.

Dr. Aland Mizell is with the University of Mindanao School of Social Science, President of the MCI and a regular contributor to The Kurdistan Tribune, Kurdishaspect.com and Kurdish Media.You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com

January 27, 2012
Tensions between Turkey’s ruling AKP and Gulenics fester

Thomas Seibert

ISTANBUL // Cracks have appeared between Turkey’s ruling party and the movement of an Islamic preacher that has been an influential supporter of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister.

The movement led by Fethullah Gulen, a 70-year-old preacher who lives in the United States, has been a key supporter of the Erdogan government, which is led by pious Muslims and has roots in political Islam. Some critics say the Gulencis, as the supporters of Mr Gulen are called in Turkey, have gained vast influence over state institutions.

But several decisions by Mr Erdogan have put off the Gulencis, as differences of interests between themselves and Mr Erdogan, a seasoned politician and party leader who always has an eye on the next elections, become apparent.

Mustafa Akyol, a columnist and author of a recent book, Islam without Extremes – A Muslim Case for Liberty, said the views of the Gulen movement, which runs several non-governmental organisations, media and universities in Turkey, matter to the government.

“They have a few million supporters in Turkey, so they have voting power, and they have influence via NGOs and the media,” Mr Akyol said. “There are some differences of opinion that have become more visible,” Mr Akyol said.

Mr Gulen’s influence on Turkish politics is informal, given that Islamic groups are officially banned in Turkey’s secular republic. That is why signs of discord between his movement and the government are often expressed by innuendo and reflected in comments by media outlets close to the two sides, rather than in public statements by key players themselves. Officials at the Journalists and Writers Foundation, the Gulen movement’s flagship organisation in Turkey, were not available for an interview.

Tensions between the Gulencis and the government rose earlier this month when media close to Mr Gulen criticised Mr Erdogan’s decision to reduce sentences for football officials convicted of match-fixing charges. The move by Mr Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was seen as a concession to millions of football fans ahead of a trial against nearly 100 officials and players from prominent clubs accused of having fixed matches with illegal payments.

When Mr Erdogan underwent gastrointestinal surgery on November 26 and withdrew from the public view for two weeks to rest, Mr Gulen remained silent and did not send a message to the prime minister to wish him a speedy recovery, Yeni Safak, a newspaper close to the AKP government, pointed out in a commentary last week.

Differences in other issues surfaced as well. Some members of the Erdogan government said they were concerned about lengthy periods of pretrial detention, including in cases against suspected members of a group accused of plotting to overthrow Mr Erdogan and to blacken Mr Gulen’s name. News reports said the Gulen movement was against changing detention rules that could result in the release of some suspects.

It is not the first time that the Gulencis and the Erdogan government have disagreed about policy issues. When Mr Erdogan took a tough line against Israel after Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists aboard the ship Mavi Marmara, which was carrying aid for the Gaza Strip last year, Mr Gulen said in a statement that Turkish authorities should have prevented the Mavi Marmara from setting sail in the first place.

Mr Akyol, the author, said the differences did not mean that the Gulen movement was about to end its support for the government, even though the movement thought that Mr Erdogan was too soft on the Turkish military, for example. “The Gulen movement sometimes accuses the government of selling the cause, of being not bold enough.” But in cases like the relation between the government and the military, Mr Erdogan was taking a pragmatic position because “he has to work with the generals”, Mr Akyol said.

Mr Gulen, who was born in Erzurum in eastern Anatolia, became a well-known preacher and Islamic intellectual in the 1980s and 1990s, when his anti-communism was applauded by Turkish officials.

His movement became known for the high value it places on education, opening schools around Turkey and in former Soviet republics in Central Asia. Mr Gulen teaches that Muslims should play an active part in the modern world and embrace tolerance and technology as well as education.

But Mr Gulen ran into trouble in 1999, when a Turkish television channel broadcast one of his speeches in which he allegedly told his followers to patiently work their way through state institutions in Turkey to reach the highest levels of the republic.

A prosecutor charged him with trying to overthrow the secular republic. Mr Gulen denied the charges and avoided arrest by travelling to the United States. Turkey’s top court threw out the case against him in 2008, but he has not returned yet.

Not everyone in Turkey accepts the view that the Gulen movement is all about tolerance and education. Ayse Hur, a historian, wrote in a recent analysis that the Gulen movement was a religiously motivated “project of social engineering” with nationalist undertones. “It is a total fantasy to expect people with this mindset to solve Turkey’s chronic problems,” the professor wrote in the Taraf newspaper on December 11.

Other critics say the Gulencis have infiltrated state institutions such as the police. In March, Ahmet Sik, a journalist who was about to publish a book about the alleged influence of the movement over the security forces, was arrested on charges that the book was written under orders by militant government opponents as part of a propaganda campaign.

“Those who touch them will burn,” Mr Sik famously said about the Gulencis as he was arrested. He has been in detention since, and his trial started last month. His book was published recently and has become a bestseller in Turkey.

tseibert@thenational.ae

January 1, 2012
Turkey hearing casts spotlight on Gulen

December 15, 2011 12:54 AM

By Justin Vela

The Daily Star

Journalists Nedim Sener (C) and Ahmet Sik (facing camera, 3rd L) wave upon arrival at a courthouse in Istanbul in this March 5, 2011 file photo. (REUTERS/Ozan Guzelce/Milliyet/Handout/Files)

ISTANBUL: Turkish journalists Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener will face their second court hearing this month, nearly eight months after being arrested for aiding a “deep-state” group of coup-plotters who aimed to topple the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Currently, there are some 70 journalists jailed in Turkey. Yet the case exposes new fault lines emerging in Turkey.

Celebrated for their investigative work, at the time of their arrests the journalists were investigating a shadowy Islamic group known as the Gulen Movement, founded in the 1960s by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who left Turkey for the United States in 1998.

While health reasons were cited for his departure, at the time he was likely to be tried over recordings in which he said, “Our friends who have positions in legislative and administrative bodies should learn its details and be vigilant all the time so that they can transform it and be more fruitful on behalf of Islam … However, they should wait until the conditions become more favorable … they should not come out too early.”

Gulen later claimed his words were taken out of context. He was tried in absentia on charges of trying to overthrow the secular state and acquitted in 2006. He is now free to return to Turkey, but remains living with followers in rural Pennsylvania.

The movement has grown into an international fraternity of schools, business associations, media outlets, and NGOs.

“They are powerful in Turkey and powerful abroad,” said Faik Tunay, an opposition parliamentarian with the People’s Republican Party (CHP).

He had visited Gulen schools in the Balkans and Central Asia and said that the students studying in the schools were the children of politicians and powerful business people.

Gulenists are also present in key positions within the education and interior ministries, police force, judiciary, and upper echelons of government, say many Turkey experts.

In April, hundreds of students protested in Istanbul when allegations surfaced that Gulenist students were being given the answers to exams for top universities and jobs within the state bureaucracy.

Prior to his arrest, Sik had completed a book called “The Imam’s Army,” which detailed allegations of how the movement sought to cover up its infiltration of the police force during an internal investigation. In March Istanbul police raided a printing house, confiscating the unpublished manuscripts in what press freedom organizations called “astonishing” censorship.

The book was widely circulated on the Internet.

For decades, the country’s powerful military considered itself the “deep state” or protectors of Turkey’s national identity. However, the so-called Ergenekon case, under which Sik and Sener are being tried, sparked a flurry of arrests, and led to the July resignations of Turkey’s top military commanders. AKP had proven able to control the military, which had ousted unfavorable governments in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997.

“With Ergenekon, the government tried to clean up the deep state, but they’ve created another deep state,” said Turkish journalist Ertugrul Mavioglu, who had investigated the movement.

While AKP, led by Turkey’s charismatic Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was immensely popular, the party could not have survived in power and tempered the military’s power alone, Mavioglu claimed.

“Congratulations to our brothers who support us beyond the ocean,” Erdogan said following AKP’s victory in a 2010 referendum on constitutional amendments, in what was widely reported as his first open reference to the Gulenists.

While senior members of AKP were previously members of Islamist parties, it was only when they began to feel threatened by the military did they join forces with the Gulenists, who had a strong hold over the country’s bureaucracy, Mavioglu said.

“They are not in the same groups because in the past they had a very different way, but they support each other.”

Now, the Gulenists allegedly aim to increase the wealth of its members, who are still not among the top ten richest people in Turkey, according to a source who did not wish to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.

They also aim to gain further influence in media and entertainment. The recently released movie Allah’s Devoted Servant, a children’s animation film that aims to educate Turks about the Islamic philosopher that inspired Gulen.

Some say Gulen merely promotes a moderate form of Sunni Islam.

Sahin Alpay, a columnist at Zaman, a newspaper considered to be a mouthpiece of the movement, described it as a “faith-based” movement.

“It’s playing a rather important role in supporting the idea of a free and democratic Turkey,” he said. “They are playing a very positive role in building bridges between Turkey and the outside world.”

He claimed the movement had schools in 120 countries. “The schools also serve to establish trade and commercial ties,” he said. “They playing an important role in supporting an open society and open economy in Turkey.”

He said he viewed the movement “very positively,” but said he was not a member.

Galip Ensarioglu, an AKP parliamentarian from Diyarbakir said the movement is “ a very important movement for Turkey.”

“Of course there are connections between AKP and the Gulen movement,” he said.

“Both are based on the support of the same citizens. Of course, the AKP doesn’t want to share its sovereignty with the Gulen movement. AKP supports them because they support education and health. After that they don’t support them if they act like a different state or another power. “

Tunay, the opposition parliamentarian, said the biggest threat the Gulenists pose was an increased polarization in society between those that want a more Islamic Turkey and those that don’t.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on December 15, 2011, on page 8.

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(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

December 15, 2011
Pacifica Institute Presents Lecture Series at Anatolian Festival

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The Pacifica Institute announced that Turkish-Israeli relations and other important issues facing Turkey today will be among a series of lectures at the Third Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival on October 6-9, 2011 at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

Other topics are the legacy of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Islam in Turkey, Turkey and the Arab Spring, Jewish-Muslim history, and the significance of the Turkish religious leader, Fethullah Gulen. They will be presented by journalists and academics from Turkey and the U.S.

For a full schedule visit www.anatolianfestival.org/lectureseries .

The lectures are as follows:

“Islam in Turkey: An Exceptional Story” and”Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty”byMustafa Akyol, columnist for the Turkish newspapers, Hurriyet Daily News and Star. Akyol’s articles have also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal and his book, “Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty, an argument for “Muslim liberalism,” was published by W.W. Norton in July 2011.

“Turkey and the Arab Spring: Turkey’s role in the Muslim-Arab World’s Democratization Efforts”and”Turkish-Israeli Relations: From Strategic Alliance to Downgrading of Relations”byKerim Balci, Editor-in-Chief of the Turkish Review, a bimonthly journal published by Turkey’s Zaman Media Group. Balci is also a columnist in Today’s Zaman and a TV correspondent on the Middle East. He was the Jerusalem correspondent for Zaman for eight years.

“Cultural Legacy of Armenians in Anatolia and in the Ottoman Empire”byEdvin Minassian, an attorney and Chairman of the Organization of Istanbul Armenians; Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Armenian Bar Association and the Government Relations and Protocol Committee of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

“Turkish Pastas”byCharles Perry, a food writer and historian of Middle Eastern food, who served as staff writer for the Los Angeles Times Food Section from 1990-2008 and translated a 13th-Century Baghdad food book.

“Wrestling with Free Speech, Religious Freedom and Democracy in Turkey: The Political Trials and Times of Fethullah Gulen”by James C. Harrington, a human rights attorney, and founder and director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, who has taught at the University of Texas School of Law for twenty-five years.

“The Scriptural Foundations of Muslim-Jewish Dialogue and Coexistence in Muslim and Jewish Sacred Textsby Rabbi Reuven Firestone, professor of medieval Judaism and Islam at Hebrew Union College and founder and co-director of the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement ( www.usc.edu/cmje ).

“Yes, I Would Love Another Glass of Tea”by Katharine Branning, Vice-President of the French Institute Alliance Francaise in New York City and has a website, www.turkishhan.org , dedicated to Seljuk hans. She wrote a collection of essays on Turkey, published by Blue Dome Presse: “Yes, I Would love Another Glass of Tea”.

For schedules and information email info@anatolianfestival.org or call (310) 208 7290. Interviews are available before and during the festival.

SOURCE Anatolian Festival

Copyright (C) 2011 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

via Pacifica Institute Presents Lecture Series at Anatolian Festival – MarketWatch.

October 4, 2011