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Turmoil in Turkey and its implications


 
Turmoil in Turkey and its implications


Till 2013 Gulen & his movement was noble allies of Erdgon, after corruption allegations on Erdgon, it was revealed to Erdgon that Gulen's movement is terrorist. How many terrorist attacks or suicide, bomb attacks have been conducted by Gulen movement and where? No one knows. It is normal to call political opponents as terrorists, while real terrorists get away.
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In Turkey, it’s basically a struggle among Islamic moderates. Neither Erdogan nor Gulen call for any kind of Islamic State, Sharia law or Caliphate. They both operate fairly comfortably within a primarily secular state structure established a century ago by the country’s modernizing secularist founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The struggle is not really about Islam or theology but about power and influence.
There are important differences between the two groups:
1. Erdogan runs a political party while Gulen operates a civil movement called Hizmet (“Service”).
2. Erdogan comes out of a more traditional Sunni Turkish Islamist movement; Gulen comes out of an apolitical, more Sufi, mystical and social tradition.
5. Hizmet (service) movement is remarkably moderate, tolerant, non-violent and open to dialogue. It is non political social service. Hizmet as a movement represents one of the most encouraging faces of contemporary Islam in the world.
6. Gulen’s movement has its faults. Gulen is a 75 years old, reclusive and often not in touch with daily aspects of the organization. Hizmet has not been a transparent organization — at times it’s viewed as “shadowy.” But in past decades, when membership in Hizmet (or any Islamic movement in Turkey) constituted grounds for possible prosecution, its members kept a low profile, often hiding their affiliation.
7. When Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, many members of Hizmet then became free to seek positions in government (if qualified). In particular, they sought jobs in the police and judiciary, to a large measure to ensure that police powers would never be wielded against them (or the AKP) again, as in the past. The tide has now turned, and the full powers of the Erdogan-controlled police are being used against Hizmet members. Sadly, the police have regularly been a political football in Turkish politics over the years.

Erdogan had already largely crushed Hizmet before the coup. He was enraged in 2013 at the publication — by Gulen followers — of police wiretap evidence of widespread corruption within Erdogan’s own circles. He undertook a massive and ongoing purge against Hizmet’s members, activists, supporters, officials, financial institutions, television stations, newspapers, educational and social institutions, especially within the police and judiciary.

As Islamic movements go, one would rank Hizmet high on the list of rational, moderate, socially constructive and open-minded organizations. It is not a cult; it sits squarely in mainstream modernizing Islam.
As its common with so many leaders, after a decade in power, corruption sets in, leaders lose their touch and grow isolated and power-hungry. Erdogan is now in the process of destroying virtually everything his party created in the first decade of governance. His sweeping purges and the pall of fear and uncertainty is destroying Turkey itself.
Extremism breeds extremism, oppression of his millions of peaceful supporters/ followers may turn some to violence which will, create anarchy not peace. Answer to all this is dialogue, dialogue not guns.

Turkey should handle domestic politics according to law and norms of democratic freedom, otherwise what's difference between Military or civilian dictators. Turkey should conduct thorough international investigations via UN and expose any thing wrong by Gulen who has international chain of schools and network. (Gullen has voluntered for such inquuiry ) They should stop propaganda against Fateh Ullah Gulen, his organization and supporters reported to be in millions in Turkey.

The ideology of Islam preached by Gulen is modern, moderate and progressive, he condemns extremism and violence, advocates service to humanity, struggles for modern education and democracy. Such noble cause need to supported in the present environments of religious terrorism. instead of countering such a peaceful ideology, there should be endeavour to improved it with batter ideological narrative of peace not guns and oppression. Gulen was opressed by previous military rulers, now Erdogan has taken their job.


THE CRITICAL CHOICE 

What kind of movements should represent Islam in future? 
Image result for daesh killing pic

ONE: The violent pseudo Jihadis, trigger happy Takfiris, the killing machines of humanity, who think that any one not towing their line weather Muslim or no Muslim deserves to  be brutally killed, through suicide bombing or any other violent means, misinterpreting the sacred holy texts to justify their heinous crimes against humanity! Some examples are Daesh (ISIS), Al -Qaeda, Taliban, Boko Haram.
Image result for daesh killing children picImage result for daesh killing pic

OR


TWO: Peaceful, educational and social welfare based movements like Fatehullah Gulen's Hizmet, (Service) with the mission of peaceful coexistence, tolerance, preaching Islam as a modern, moderate and progressive, condemning extremism and violence, advocates service to humanity, struggles for modern education and democracy.


iT IS MOST UNFORTUNATE THAT FOR POWER POLITICS, MODERATE SOCIAL, EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION  LIKE HIZMET HAS BEEN DECLARED AS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION IN TURKEY, USING STATE APPARATUS AGAINST THEM, WHICH WILL ONLY BENEFIT THE TERRORISTS LIKE DAESH, BOKO-HARAM,  AL-QAIDA & TALIBAN.
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Why Turkey wants to silence its academics Connection of state and knowledge

 It is a truism that knowledge is power. Those who control knowledge have ultimate power in a society. Since educational institutions are among the most significant places for research, their control becomes crucial in autocratic states. Rulers want to closely monitor access to knowledge and therefore to power.
Connection of state and knowledge
It is a truism that knowledge is power. Those who control knowledge have ultimate power in a society. Since educational institutions are among the most significant places for research, their control becomes crucial in autocratic states. Rulers want to closely monitor access to knowledge and therefore to power.

 Scholar Büşra Ersanlı, a political scientist studying the connection between between state and knowledge in Turkey, points out how the Turkish state has constantly taken measures to imbue all school textbooks with nationalist discourse glorifying the state.

 Schools and campuses are regarded as sites of potential social change in Turkey. In this context, it is no accident that the Gülen movement – launched by a Muslim cleric with the professed intent to improve first Turkish civil society and then humankind – started by providing K-12 and higher education.

 President Erdoğan too used schools to start a revival movement in Sunni Islamic studies. At one time, in fact, both President Erdogan and Islamic scholar Gulen were considered to be allies.
Where will Turkey go next?

 Where will Turkey go from here? 
I spend many sleepless nights, feeling just as I did when I first read George Orwell’s “1984.” Just like Orwell’s dystopian society – a society with oppressive controls – the current Turkish state and the government are, it seems, out to Where will Turkey go next?

 I, for one, have decided not to travel to my country of origin this summer for the first time ever for fear of arrest.

 Where will Turkey go from here? 
Just like Orwell’s dystopian society – a society with oppressive controls – the current Turkish state and the government are, it seems, out to silence all people capable of producing new and independent thinking and research in Turkey.
As most of such minds are concentrated in Turkish academia, they will all be destroyed unless they turn into obedient and pious consumers. all people capable of producing new and independent thinking and research in Turkey.
T
As most of such minds are concentrated in Turkish academia, they will all be destroyed unless they turn into obedient and pious consumers.

 "Importing conflicts from other countries into Bosnia and obliging our citizens to express their support for one of the sides will create new divisions in our society," Esref Kenan Rasidagic, professor of international relations at the University of Sarajevo, told BIRN.
The pressure from Turkish institutions as, "an action of interfering in the internal affairs of our country,”

 "If we decide to close the schools that are part of the Gulen movement in Bosnia, than what will happen the day the government in Turkey changes? Should we shut down the other Turkish educational institutions as well?"
http://theconversation.com/why-turkey-wants-to-silence-its-academics-62885
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Turkey coup and Fethullah Gülen: Why blame a progressive Islamic modernist?

 An authoritative mainstream Turkish Islamic scholar, social thinker and educationist Fethullah Gülen (1938) has long been engaged in peace activism, interfaith and intercultural dialogue, promoting science, democracy and spirituality. Living in exile in Pennsylvania, he promulgates a spiritually inclined faith in Islam. He has propounded spiritual Islamic theories, which can contribute to the modern approaches to peace, non-violence and counter-extremism. Interestingly, he is not a social scientist but his ideas are very relevant to peace and conflict resolution. Gülen strongly advocates the importance of democracy, pluralism, education, science and interfaith dialogue for peace and conflict resolution in the Muslim world. In a research paper entitled Fethullah Gülen and His Liberal Turkish Islam (Movement. MERIA Journal. V4, No:4), Aras and Caha (2000) have concluded that Gülen’s basic idea is to replace the theory of “clash of civilisations” with the “cooperation of civilisations towards a peaceful world”.

Gülen’s ideas, primarily drawn from Islamic sources, have inspired the powerful civic and social movement, Hizmet or what is popularly known as ‘Gülen movement’ within Turkey and abroad. The Turkish word ‘Hizmet’ is derivative of the Arabic-Persian word “Kihdmat” meaning “service” and hence the movement has established hundreds of educational, civic service organisations and institutions in over 160 countries, actively contributing in the areas of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, intercultural-interfaith dialogue, education, media and relief work. These institutions engage in various initiatives that foster inclusiveness, build community capacity and create shared spaces.

 It is not going to be all that easy to blame Gülen for the Turkish coup for two main reasons: First, Fathullah Gülen and his Hizmet movement fully supported the Turkish president Erdoğan when his ruling party, Justice and Development Party democratically rose to power. Second, the mainstream peace-loving Turkish people around the world endorse the writings and teachings of Fethullah Gülen, which lay the foundation of the Hizmet Movement. It has earned huge appreciation from an overwhelming number of independent researchers and writers, both from Turkey and foreign countries. Even the Turkish media has favoured the humanitarianism of the Gülen movement until the recent forced capture of the mainstream media outlets like the most popular daily newspapers  Zaman and Today’s Zaman which often spoke for the Hizmet. Reporters Without Borders’ security-general Christophe Deloire released a hard-hitting statement about the takeover of independent media in Turkey, calling it “ideological and unlawful.” He wrote: “Erdoğan is now moving from authoritarianism to all-out despotism”. As a result, the editorial tone of several media outlets in connection to the Hizmet movement has changed after the takeover, as Al-Jazeera has pointed out in an article dated 6 March.

 In 2001, Berna Turam, professor of Sociology and Middle East Studies at Hampshire College, studied the Gülen Movement in McGill University for her PhD that was based on an extended empirical research project undertaken in Turkey and Kazakhstan between 1997 and 1999. She wrote Between Islam and the State: The Engagements between Gülen Community and the Secular Turkish State.  The main findings of her research contrast the juxtaposition of Islam and the state. She noted:

 “Throughout the Middle East, the clash between Islamic forces and authoritarian states has undermined many democratization efforts. But in Turkey, Islamic actors—from the Gülen movement to the pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party—have been able to negotiate the terms of secular liberal democracy”
“Though both the Gülen and JP have ambivalent attitudes toward individual freedoms and various aspects of civil society, their continuing engagements with the state have encouraged democracy in Turkey. As they contest issues of education and morality but cooperate in ethnic and gender politics, they redraw the boundaries between public sites and private lives.“

 Gülen’s progressive ideas have inspired a new-age Turkish generation dedicated to advocate democracy, dialogue, and humane values, stressing Islam’s universal and egalitarian messages through social agencies such as education, health, interfaith dialogue, relief programmes and other humanitarian channels. Going by a conservative estimate, the Hizmet movement runs more than thousands of secular educational institutions, hospitals, dialogue centres and unaccounted relief programmes.

 At a time when the Muslim youth are falling prey to the extremist jihadist thoughts, Gülen’s initiatives are particularly aimed at producing solutions to the baffling problem of radicalisation and growing religious extremism in the Muslim societies.

 The Alliance for Shared Values is one of the various global interfaith organizations that espouse the ideas of Gülen. It has condemned the coup attempt in the early hours, followed by the strongest condemnation of the incident by Gülen himself.

 According to The Financial Times, many other Gülen-inspired organisations have denounced the coup in categorical and unequivocal terms.

 By Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, excerpts: The author is a scholar of Comparative Religion, Classical Arabic and Islamic sciences, cultural analyst and researcher in Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, JMI Central University

 http://www.gulenmovement.us/turkey-coup-fethullah-gulen-blame-progressive-islamic-modernist.html

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Excerpts from Source :
1.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/graham-e-fuller/gulen-movement-not-cult_b_11116858.html
2.The Dreadful Doctrine of Terror : Takfeer عقيدة المروعة من الإرهاب: التكفير
3.http://takfiritaliban.blogspot.com
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Erdoğan's war against Gulen and Hizmet: Step by step

After the failed "coup" in July 2016 in Turkey, president Erdoğan has unleashed reign of terror of Hizmet inspired people and affiliated organizations. This started immediately as if they were ready with the lists. The eniminy and vengeance is not new against his former ally  till 2013. Here follow step by step history:

Turkish prosecutors carried out a number of arrests and raids on the morning of 17th December 2013 as part of a series of on-going corruption investigations implicating a number of people (e.g. sons of three cabinet members) with very close ties to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AK Party government. PM Erdoğan’s response has been to call this a coup attempt against his government orchestrated by a coalition of foreign and domestic enemies and to call for Turkey’s second struggle of independence against these forces. Erdoğan claims that the ‘domestic pawn’ of this plot is the Gülen-inspired Hizmet movement which he claims to have infiltrated the state. His number one election campaign promise: to crush and annihilate the treacherous Hizmet movement. For further background information on the corruption investigations please click here. 
Why Erdoğan chose Hizmet as his phantom enemy
  1. To justify the draconian measures he needed to take to disrupt and prevent the corruption investigations of 17th and 25th December 2013, implicating him and his government 
  2. To curtail Hizmet which was both independent of his government and able to speak to the observant Turkish Muslims 
Erdoğan’s action plan against the Gülen-inspired Hizmet movement
  1. Subdue and control the media which has been an ongoing process and is not restricted to Erdoğan’s agenda against the movement nonetheless is extremely useful to him in this process as it ensures the government’s narrative is continually repeated and public perception and consciousness is shaped accordingly. Hence the Twitter and YouTube ban because they could not be controlled.
  2. Profile all public employees, bureaucrats, academics and journalists by empowering Turkey’s National Intelligence services which we now know dates back to the National Security Meeting of 2004 where Erdoğan and the generals agreed a nationwide strategy against the movement including its profiling.
  3. Dehumanize Hizmet participants thereby making it easier for the public to accept the persecution and eventual prosecution to follow.
  4. Purge those profiled deemed to hold the constitution and law above unflinching loyalty to PM Erdoğan. Replacing the head of İstanbul police force, the largest in the country, with the former mayor of Aksaray who has no policing background whatsoever is one such example. To date, over 20,000 people have been purged, demoted and relocated. The PM accepted that this was a ‘witch-hunt’ of those he deemed to be ‘traitors’.
  5. .Disrupt Hizmet organizations by for example shutting down university preparation courses, attempting to nationalize Bank Asya, putting pressure on businesses advertising in Zaman, revoking planning permissions to build new schools etc.
  6. Disrupt Hizmet supporting businesses by for example revoking relevant licenses as in the case of İpek Holding mining company, putting pressure on other business partners from trading with businesses with close links to Hizmet.
  7. Prepare the legal and evidential groundwork for criminalization of Hizmet through a range of measures listed below. 
Why Erdoğan Must Prosecute Hizmet
  1. To justify the narrative he has been offering since the Gezi park protests, that is that there are foreign powers working with domestic traitors bent on undermining Turkey’s success
  2. ‘Prove’ that the corruption investigations implicating him and his government were in fact a coup attempt
  3. Justify the draconian measures he has taken against prosecutors and police to disrupt the corruption investigations on the pretext that they were linked to Hizmet, the domestic partners of this ‘coup attempt’
  4. Provide him with greater justification to undermine Turkey’s separation of powers and thereby ensure his future immunity from prosecution 
  5. Deliver on his number one promise to prosecute the movement and thereby remove a credible oppositional and alternative voice 
Tangible steps taken by Erdoğan to successfully criminalize Hizmet
  1. What follows is a list of tangible steps taken by the AKP government post-17th December to ensure that the Hizmet movement is successfully prosecuted and criminalized. These do not include all steps taken against the movement, only those most relevant to this particular process: 
  2. Changing HSYK by giving the government critical power over the appointment of prosecutors and judges and their assignment to investigations and court cases shifting the power balance in the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) by passing a law1 in February.
  3. Creation of super peace judges with far reaching powers by the passing of a new judicial package2 in mid-June. A single peace judge will have the unilateral power to start and end investigations and to issue all types of orders such as detentions, searches, arrests, the freezing of assets etc. Previously, these decisions could only be made by a peace court comprising a panel of judges as opposed to a single judge. The new peace judges will be appointed by the now compromised HSYK.
  4. Restructuring of the Supreme Court of Appeals, subordinating the judiciary to the government by the passing of the same judicial package mentioned above. 
  5. Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor Serdar Çoşkun’s orders dated 11 June to the Ankara Police Department and its Organized Crime Bureau to carry out a secret investigation into the Hizmet movement to gather intelligence about Hizmet participants and Hizmet affiliated media group, civil society organizations, private schools, student dormitories, exam preparation centers, companies, foundations and associations.
  6. Turgut Aslan, Head of Counterterrorism Unit of National Police Department (TEM)’s written 23 point order3 dated 25th June sent to police departments in 30 provinces requesting that they contribute to the ongoing investigation into Hizmet by the Anti-Constitutional Crimes Investigation Bureau asking them if Hizmet has an armed division; if they have power to overthrow the government or abolish the Constitution; if they were involved in some of Turkey’s most infamous murders in recent years such as Hrant Dink in 2007, Catholic priest Father Santoro in 2006, a member judge of the Council of State in 2006, three Christian missionaries in Malatya in 2007 and Üzeyir Garih in 2001; what individuals or foreign powers and groups they work for and how often Hizmet’s prominent participants travel abroad from Turkey. TEM’s written order also asks the police departments in 30 provinces to find secret witnesses who will testify against the movement and that these can include those that have been prosecuted on criminal charges and found guilty since 2003 onwards. 
The steps above state the legal and evidential groundwork undertaken by PM Erdoğan’s government to prosecute and successfully criminalize the Hizmet movement in Turkey. The steps to control the HSYK, the Supreme Court of Appeals and the creation of new super ‘peace’ judges with extraordinary powers is an attempt to ensure that a government appointed judge and prosecutor can try and judge the Hizmet movement and ensure that the verdict is upheld on appeal. The orders issued by Chief Prosecutor Serdar Coşkun and the head of TEM, Turgut Aslan, are proof that the plan is well underway. 
These steps are part of a wider plan against the Hizmet movement as revealed in the parliamentary question posed by İdris Naim Şahin, former Interior Minister and AKP member of parliament, to the current Interior Minister Efkan Ala in which Mr Şahin states that he has been handed an action-plan document detailing how the government will crack down on the Hizmet movement and criminalize it within its courts. Mr Şahin states that document is signed and asks whether or not it is genuine. 
Former Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin’s Parliamentary Question to the current Interior Minister: Has your department prepared an action plan to eradicate the Hizmet movement?
İdris Naim Şahin was a close friend and confidante of PM Erdoğan. He was Interior Minister and Cabinet Member from July 2011 to January 2013; an AKP deputy from November 2002 to December 2013. Following 17th December he resigned in protest at the government’s response by saying: “The government is run by a small oligarchy of elites in a way that excludes broad segments of the party constituency and the Turkish people.”
Salient points of İdris Naim Şahin’s parliamentary question:
  1. It is known that the government is using state resources to take a confrontational approach toward those who feel sympathy or affiliated with the Hizmet movement, which is famed for its efforts to preserve the nation`s faith, scientific and cultural values and promote these values abroad that would only enhance the prestige of Turkey. Is it accurate that an Action Plan against the Hizmet movement has been prepared and put into action? 
  2. Does the first article of the alleged Action Plan deals with a plot to detect those who are members of the Hizmet movement and try to destroy the constitutional order of the country and gather necessary evidence against them in a secret way?  
  3. Does the Action Plan orders authorities to investigate if the Hizmet movement possesses armed power and if the movement has the necessary power to take over the government?
  4. Does the Action Plan ask for an investigation into the possible role of the Hizmet movement in such infamous criminal acts as the St. Santoro murder, Hrant Dink murder, Zirve publishing house massacre, Necip Hablemitoğlu and Üzeyir Garih murders?
  5. Does the Action Plan ask if those who have become victims during criminal investigations in the past ten years would testify against the Hizmet movement and demands that former members of the Hizmet movement be urged to testify against the movement and then protected through state witness protection system?

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References, Sources & more information:
More- Turkey Today:The Magazine, updated periofically: http://flip.it/X0JbQ
Closer look at empire of cleric accused in Turkey coup attempt:
ASTONISHING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FAILED COUP ATTEMPT IN TURKEY
A reality check on the Middle East from America’s spy chief;