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Gülen hareketi | |
| Nickname |
|
|---|---|
| Founder | Fethullah Gülen |
| Founded at | İzmir, Turkey |
| Purpose | Education, interfaith dialogue, humanitarian[1][2][3][4] |
| Headquarters | 1969–1999İzmir, Turkey 1999–presentSaylorsburg, United States |
| Origins | Turkey |
Region served | Worldwide |
| Fields | Education, banking, media, healthcare[5] |
| Membership | Several hundred thousand to a couple of million |
Official language | Turkish |
| Leader | Fethullah Gülen |
Designated as a terrorist group by GCC OIC Turkey Pakistan | |
TheGülen movement (Turkish:Gülen hareketi) is aSunni Islamic movement based on religious teachings ofFethullah Gülen. It is referred by its members as the "Service" ("Hizmet") or "Community" ("Cemaat") and it originated in Turkey around the late 1970s.[6] It is institutionalized in 180 countries through educational institutions, as well as media outlets, charities, finance companies, for-profit health clinics, and affiliated foundations that have a combined net worth in the range of 20–50 billion dollars as of 2015.[a]
Its followers are mostlySunni Muslims based on aNursian theological perspective as reflected in Gülen's religious teachings.[14] Its teachings are considered conservative in Turkey but some have praised the movement as apacifist, modern-oriented version of Islam, and an alternative to more extreme schools of Islam such asSalafism.[15] On the other hand, it has also been reported to have a "cultish hierarchy" and as being a secretiveIslamic sect.[16][17][18] The movement is also known for initiating forums forinterfaith dialogue.
In 2002, the Gülen movement and Turkey's rulingJustice and Development Party (AKP), formed a political alliance against the Turkish military and thesecular elite.[19][20] During its alliance with the Gülen movement, the AKP secured national electoral victories sufficient to form majority governments consecutively in2002,2007, and2011. During this period, hundreds of Gülen movement affiliated people were appointed to high ranking positions within the Turkish government.[21]
Starting in 2012, disagreements began emerging between the AKP and the Gülen movement. In February 2012, a "MİT crisis" was described as a power struggle between the AKP and the pro-Gülen police and judiciary.[22][23][24] Theconflict intensified in December 2013 aftercorruption investigations were launched into several politicians and family members of the ruling AKP of Turkey by the Gülen friendly judiciary, PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed the movement had initiated the investigations as a result of a break in previously friendly relations.[25][26][27][28] Erdoğan accused Gülen of attempting to overthrow the Turkish government through a judicial coup using the investigations. In response to the investigations, the government seized the Gülen movement operated newspaperZaman, as well as several other companies affiliated with the movement.[29]
In July 2016, Gülen movement's conflict with the Turkish government reached its climax, during theattempted coup d’état. In the aftermath of the failed coup, the Turkish government accused the movement of organizing the plot and launchedwidespread purges against its alleged members, and arrested thousands of high ranking military officers and judges. Other members of the movement who worked for Turkey's governmental agencies were dismissed and over ten thousand education staff were suspended and the licenses of over 20,000 teachers working at private institutions were revoked due to their affiliation to Gülen.[30][31] Gülen condemned the coup and denied any involvement.[32][33]
Since 2016, the Gülen movement has been designated by Turkey as aterrorist organization.[34] The movement has also been designated as a terrorist organization byPakistan,Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and theGulf Cooperation Council.[34][35][36] However, the Gülen movement is not recognized as a terrorist organization by theEuropean Union,[37] theUnited States,[38] theUnited Kingdom,[39]Canada,Australia andNew Zealand. The Gülen movement was included in the declaration in the trilateral memorandum signed by Turkey, Finland and Sweden during theNATO summit in Madrid on 28 June 2022, but did not define it as a terrorist organization.[40]
A true count of the membership is unknown since the movement is not a centralised or formal organisation with membership rosters, but rather a set of numerous, loosely organised networks of people inspired by Gülen.[41] Estimates of the size of the movement vary, with one estimate byTempo in 1997 stating that between 200,000 supporters and 4 million people are influenced by Gülen's ideas,[42] and another source stating that Gülen has "hundreds of thousands of supporters".[43] The membership of the movement consists primarily of students, teachers, businessmen, academics, journalists and other professionals.[13] Some well known people who are or were affiliated with the movement include former NBA playerEnes Kanter Freedom and soccer starHakan Şükür.[44][45]
The movement states that it is based on moral values and advocacy ofuniversal access to education,civil society, tolerance and peace. The emphasis among participants is to perform "ministry" (which is the meaning of the Turkish word "hizmet") as arising from individuals' personal commitments to righteous imperatives. Along withhizmet, the movement, which has no official name, is termed the Gülen movement orcemaat (the latter also used to describe participants inSufi orders, meaning "congregation," "community," or "assembly.")
The movement's structure has been described as a flexible organisational network.[46]
Akin to Turkey's Sufitariqas arelay religious orders which have been banned in Turkey since 1925.[47] Movement schools and businesses organize locally and link themselves into informal networks.[48] Each local Gülen movement school and community has a person designated its "informal" prayer leader (imam). In Turkey, an imam is state-sponsored. In the Gülen movement, this individual is a layman who serves for a stint within this volunteer position,lay clergy.[citation needed] His identity is kept confidential, generally only purposely made known to those with close connections to those participating in decision-making and coordinating councils within the local group. Above a grouping of such "secret" (not-publicly acknowledged) imams is another such volunteer leader.[citation needed] This relationship tree continues on up the ladder to the nation-level imam and to individuals who consult with Gülen himself.[49] These individuals closest to Gülen, having degrees from theology schools, are offhandedly referred to within the movement asmullahs.[50] Gülen's position, as described in the foregoing, is analogous to that of ashaykh (master) of a Sufi tariqa. Unlike with traditional tariqas, no-one makes pledges of any sort, upon joining the Gülen movement; one becomes a movement participant simply by working with others to promote and effect the movement's objectives of education and service.[51]
TheSüddeutsche Zeitung quoted a German lawyer that called the organisation "more powerful than theIlluminati" and "not transparent as opposed to the claims", and reported that the organisation tried to reorganise in theSwabia region of Germany.[52]
Gülen and the Gülen movement are technology-friendly, work within current market and commerce structures, and are savvy users of modern communications and public relations.[53]
Its members have founded schools, universities, hospitals, an employers' association, charities, real estate trusts, student organisations, radio and television stations, and newspapers.[43][54]
Hizmet-affiliated foundations and businesses were estimated to be worth 20-50 billion dollars in 2015.[11]
[[File:Gokhan-acikkollu-with-students-at-classroom.jpg|thumb|Gökhan Açıkkollu, a teacher from a Gülen-affiliated school died in police custody after being imprisoned and tortured for 13 days post 2016 coup attempt.[55]Schools associated with the Gülen movement can be found in countries with large populations of people of Turkish descent as well as in predominantly non-Turkish Muslim countries where they provide families with an alternative tomadrasa education. The schools are open to both Turkish migrants and citizens of host countries, and they avoid pushing for a religious agenda. Many alumni of Gülen schools pursue elite careers in diplomacy and international institutions.[56] There were about 1000 Gülen schools in Turkey that an estimated 1.2 million Turks passed through (Including many of Erdoğan's relatives).[57] However, after the attempted coup in 2016, all of the schools were shut down and banned by law.
In 2009, it was estimated that Gülen linked schools around the world enrolled more than 2 million students.[58] Estimates of the number of schools and educational institutions but it appears there were about 300 Gülen Movement schools in Turkey and over 1,000 schools worldwide at that time.[59][60] Later reporting by theWall Street Journal estimated around 150 schools just in the United States, "ranging from networks in Texas, Illinois and Florida to stand-alone academies in Maryland".[61] Although there is no formal networking of all the schools, collectively they form one of the largest collections ofcharter schools in America."[62][[File:Filology.jpg|thumb|Ahmet Yassawi University, a private university affiliated with the Gülen movement located inTurkistan,Kazakhstan[63]]]Most Gülen movement associated schools are private schools or charter schools. The curricula of the schools vary from country to country but they generally follow a secular mixture ofTurkish and local curricula with an emphasis on science and math. A 2008 article in theNew York Times said that in Pakistan "they encourage Islam in their dormitories, where teachers set examples in lifestyle and prayer", and described the Turkish schools as offering a gentler approach to Islam that could help reduce the influence of extremism.[64] However, in America, "there is no indication the American charter network has a religious agenda in the classroom", according toThe Philadelphia Inquirer.[65] Two American professors at theLutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia andTemple University wrote that "these schools have consistently promoted good learning and citizenship, and the Hizmet movement is to date an evidently admirable civil society organisation to build bridges between religious communities and to provide direct service on behalf of the common good".[66] Professor Joshua Hendrick ofLoyola University Maryland, who studies the movement, said that Gülen himself "does not have a direct hand in operating" the charter schools and it was reported that Gülen has never visited the schools.[61][67] Alp Aslandoğan, director of theAlliance for Shared Values said that the schools are independent yet indirectly tied to the Gülen movement on the "intellectual or inspirational level."[68]
In Europe there has been some pushback to the establishment of schools associated with the movement. In Georgia, theGeorgian Labour Party protested schools opening on the basis that they "aim to spread Turkish culture and fundamentalist religious ideas".[69] In the Netherlands, there were concerns that the schools would promote "anti-integrative behavior" however an investigation in 2010 by theAIVD intelligence organization found that the schools did not represent a threat.[70][71]
In America there have been allegations and investigations into money-laundering and kickbacks at charter schools connected to the Gülen movement which receive federalfinancial support.[68][65] Schools in Texas were accused of sending school funds to Gülen associated organizations by prioritizing construction contracts with Turkish expatriate-owned construction companies over more economical bids, according to reporting byThe New York Times in 2011.[62]Folwell Dunbar, an official at theLouisiana Department of Education, accusedİnci Akpınar, vice president of one such construction company, of offering him a $25,000 bribe to keep quiet about troubling conditions at theAbramson Science and Technology School inNew Orleans which was operated by thePelican Foundation.[72]
As of 2015 there were over 100 K-12 schools in Africa, including schools in Morocco, Mali, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mauritania, Senegal, Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Congo, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Egypt, and Angola.[73]
Movement members have set up a number of media organisations to promote its core values such as love, tolerance, hope, dialogue, activism, mutual acceptance and respect. These media organs include TV stations (Samanyolu TV,Samanyolu Haber TV,Mehtap TV), (Ebru TV) (English), the newspapersZaman,Today's Zaman (English), magazines and journals in Turkish likeAksiyon,Sızıntı,Yeni Ümit,Çağlayan,[74]The Fountain Magazine (English),[75]Hira (Arabic),The InternationalCihan News Agency and the radio stationBurç FM.
The movement runs charity and humanitarian aid organisations internationally. Among them is the Istanbul-based Kimse Yok Mu Association (KYM). KYM organises charity campaigns to help those in need in different parts of the world. Like any other activities of the Gülen-movement, KYM runs local projects responding to specific needs. KYM holds UN Ecosoc Special status.
Another charity organisation Embrace Relief was established inNew Jersey and is active in America, Asia and Africa.[76] Embrace Relief has provided over 40,500 cataract surgeries and more than 600,000 preventative health screenings in Uganda, Mali, Kenya and Burkina Faso. It has distributed over $540,000 of medical supplies to doctors.[77]
The movement has been characterised as a "moderate blend of Islam".[64][78] A 2008 article inThe Economist stated that the Gülen movement is vying to be recognised as the world's leading Muslim network, one that is more reasonable than many of its rivals.[79] The movement builds on the activities of Gülen, who has won praise from non-Muslims for his advocacy of science,interfaith dialogue, and multi-party democracy. It has earned praise as "the world's most global movement".[80] Fethullah Gülen's and the Gülen movement's views and practices have been discussed in several international conferences at academic level includingCalifornia State University in US,University of Toronto in Canada,O. P. Jindal Global University in India.[81][82][83][84][85]
The movement's avowal of interfaith dialogue grew out of Gülen's personal engagement in interfaith dialogue which was largely inspired by,Said Nursi. Gülen has met with leaders of other religions, includingPope John Paul II, theEcumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and Israeli Sephardic Head RabbiEliyahu Bakshi-Doron.[86] Gülen advocates for cooperation between followers of different religions as well as those practicing different forms of Islam (such as Sunnism orAlevism).
Gülen movement participants have founded a number of institutions across the World that promoteinterfaith andintercultural dialogue activities. Among these are theJournalists and Writers Foundation in Istanbul, theRumi Forum in Washington and theIndialogue Foundation in New Delhi.
David Tittensor wrote, "[Detractors] have labeled Gülen community members as secretive missionaries, while those in the Movement and sympathetic observers class it as acivil society organisation".[87]
Critics have complained that members of the Gülen movement are overly compliant with the directions from its leaders,[88] and Gülen's "movement is generally perceived by its critics as a religio-politicalcult".[89] TheGuardian editorial board described the movement in 2013 as having "some of the characteristics of a cult or of an IslamicOpus Dei".[90]
Scholars such as Simon Robinson disagree with the characterisation, writing that although "[t]here is no doubt that Gülen remains acharismatic leader and that members of the movement hold him in the highest respect", the movement "differs markedly from a cult in several ways", with Gülen stressing "the primacy of the scriptures" and "the imperative of service" and consistently avoiding "attempts to institutionalise power, to perceive him as the source of all truth, or to view him as taking responsibility for the movement".[91] Zeki Saritoprak says that the view of Gülen as "a cult leader or a man with ambitions" is mistaken, and contends that Gülen should be viewed in the context of a long line of Sufi masters who have long been a center of attention "for their admirers and followers, both historically and currently".[92]
Gülen movement received support from some of the Turkish politicians like conservativeTurgut Özal,[93] leftistBülent Ecevit.[41] Özal visited Gülen schools in Central Asian countries and endorsed them, 3 days later he was assassinated.[56][94]
The Gülen movement works within the given structures of modern secular states; it encourages affiliated members to maximise the opportunities those countries afford rather than engaging in subversive activities.[95] Per the words of the leader himself and the title of a cornerstone of his philosophy, Gülen promotes "anOttoman Empire of the Mind".[96]
Beginning in 2008, the Dutch government investigated the movement's activities in the Netherlands in response to questions fromParliament. The first two investigations, performed by theAIVD, concluded that the movement did not form a breeding ground for radicalism and found no indications that the movement worked against integration or that it was involved in terrorism or religious radicalisation. A further academic study sketched a portrait of a socially conservative, inwardly directed movement with an opaque organisational structure, but said that its members tend to be highly successful in society and thus form no threat to integration.[97]
Neither Gülen nor his followers have formed a national political party, but they have had political involvement or parliamentary representation for a brief time. Two supporters of the movementHakan Şükür, Muhammed Çetin served as AKP MP's between 2011-2013.[98][99] In 2008, Gülen was described as "the modern face of the Sufi Ottoman tradition", reassuring his followers, including many members of "Turkey's aspirational middle class", that "they can combine thestatist-nationalist beliefs ofAtatürk's republic with a traditional but flexible Islamic faith" and "Ottoman traditions [have] been caricatured as theocratic by Atatürk and his 'Kemalist' heirs".[53] In the early 2000s, the Gülen movement was seen as keeping a distance from established Islamic political parties.[100]
Gülen met with various politicians from bothright-wing andleft-wing.[101] When the IslamistJustice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, the two groups formed a non-aggression pact against the military and theTurkish secular elite despite their differences.[citation needed] According to some research, the cooperation between AKP and the Gülen movement was a shallow, tactical alliance that got stronger in 2007 due to perceived threats of a coup, which both groups believed would harm their interests.[102]
Once the old establishment had been defeated, disagreements began emerging between the AKP and the Gülen movement. The first breaking point was the so-called "MİT crisis" in February 2012 which has been interpreted as a power struggle between the AKP and the pro-Gülen police and judiciary.[103][104][105] The tensions increased after Gülen criticised Erdoğan's heavy handed response toGezi Park protests.[106] Aftercorruption investigations in December 2013 into several politicians and family members of the ruling AKP of Turkey by the allegedly Gülen friendly judiciary, PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed the movement had initiated the investigations as a result of a break in previously friendly relations.[25][26][27][28] The leaked conversation between Erdoğan and his son, which triggered the corruption scandal was viewed by 3 million people in 24 hours on YouTube.[107] President Erdoğan said Gülen had attempted to overthrow the Turkish government through a judicial coup using the investigations. In response to the investigations, the government seized the group-owned newspaperZaman, which was one of the most circulatednewspapers in Turkey, as well as several companies that had ties to the group totaling billions of dollars.[29]
According to academic researcher and foreign lobbyist Svante E. Cornell, director of theCentral Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, "With only slight exaggeration, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as well as the government it has led could be termed a coalition of religious orders."[108]
"[...T]he Gülen movement stayed away from electoral politics, focusing instead on increasing its presence in the state bureaucracy. The Hizmet movement's stated success in this regard would initially make it Erdoğan's main partner, but also his eventual nemesis."[109]
On 9 November 2005, abookstore was bombed in Şemdinli. The prosecutor for the case, Ferhat Sarıkaya, prepared a criminal indictment in which Turkey's Commander of Land Forces,Yaşar Büyükanıt, was accused of forming a gang and plotting the bombing. In 2016 Sarıkaya confessed that he was ordered by Gülenists to include General Yaşar Büyükanıt in the criminal indictment to prevent his promotion in the army and to ease the pressure on Gülenist structures within the army.[110] The defendants, Ali Kaya, Özcan İldeniz, and Veysel Ateş, were acquitted of the bombing on 20 December 2021.[111]
Allegations have been made about the role of the Gülen movement in the assassination of journalistHrant Dink in Istanbul. Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, one of Hrant Dink's lawyers, said in an interview withDeutsche Welle that the under-aged perpetrator, Ogün Samast, had help from third parties, including people connected to the Istanbul and Trabzon police forces.[112]
Four prosecutors in the trial were dismissed from their posts due to their ties with the movement and for failing to make progress with the case. Furthermore, police commissioners Ramazan Akyürek and Ali Fuat Yılmazer were accused of not sharing their foreknowledge of the attack with the prosecutors, thegendarmerie, or the intelligence services despite being briefed of a planned assassination several times.[citation needed]
In 2023, the Dink family stated that the real perpetrator is the deep-state: "If this case is closed in its current state, and the deep-state mechanism of many years is simply labeled as 'FETÖ’ — the Turkish government’s designation for the alleged terrorist Gülen movement — and passed over, without an effective investigation being conducted, who will be responsible for the other lives that may be lost in the coming years"[113]
Questions have arisen about the Gülen movement's possible involvement in theErgenekon investigation,[114] which critics characterised as "a pretext" by the government "to neutralize dissidents" in Turkey.[58]
Journalist Nedim Şener was arrested for being a member of the Ergenekon organisation and was held in pre-trial detention in 2011.[115]
The Gülen movement has also been implicated in what the oppositionRepublican People's Party (CHP) has said were illegal court decisions against members of theTurkish military, including many during the Ergenekon investigation. These claims were also supported by PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan after 2013.[116]
Members of the Gülen movement inside the intelligence agency have been accused of reshaping Turkish politics to a more "workable form" by leaking secretly filmed sex tapes and corruption tapes of members of the government, with the resignation of main opposition leaderDeniz Baykal in 2010 as the most notable example.[117][118][119] Deniz Baykal stated that he did not share the view of pro-government media outlets that blamed the Gülen movement for the release of the video recording, arguing that such an operation could not have been carried out without the knowledge and approval of senior government figures. In two separate interviews given in 2010 and 2016, Baykal expressed his perspective by saying, “In this context, to assist those seeking to identify other responsible parties, I would like to note that I believe in the sincerity of the messages of sympathy and support I received from the United States and Pennsylvania(Gülen movement)."[120]
In March 2011, seven Turkish journalists were arrested, includingAhmet Şık, who had been writing a book, "İmamın Ordusu" (The Imam's Army),[121] which states that the Gülen movement has infiltrated the country's security forces. As Şık was taken into police custody, he shouted, "Whoever touches it [the movement] gets burned!".[122] Upon his arrest, drafts of the book were confiscated and its possession was banned. Şık has also been charged with being part of the Ergenekon plot despite investigating the plot before his arrest.[123]
In a reply, Abdullah Bozkurt, from the Gülen aligned newspaperToday's Zaman, said Ahmet Şık was not an investigative journalist conducting "independent research", but was hatching "a plot designed and put into action by the terrorist network itself".[124]
On 17 December 2013, aninvestigation into corrupt practices by several bureaucrats, ministers, mayors, and family members of the rulingJustice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkey was uncovered, resulting in widespread protests and the resignation of four ministers of the government led by Prime MinisterErdoğan.[25][26] Due to the high level of political influence of the Gülen movement in Turkey, it was rumored that the investigation was facilitated by the movement's influence in the Turkish police force and the judiciary.[27] The investigation was said to be a result of a break in the previously friendly relations between the Islamist-rooted government and the movement.[28]
PresidentErdoğan and theAKP (the ruling party of Turkey) have targeted the movement since December 2013. Immediately after the investigation became public, the government subjugated the judiciary, media and civil society which were critical of the government's authoritarian trend in recent years.[125][126][127] Erdoğan labelled the investigations as a "civilian coup" against his government. Since then, Erdoğan has shuffled, dismissed or jailed hundreds of police officers, judges, prosecutors and journalists in the name of fighting against a "Parallel State" within the Turkish state.
On 14 December 2014, Turkish police arrested more than two dozen senior journalists and media executives connected with the Gülen movement on various charges.
TheUS State Department cautioned Turkey to not violate its "own democratic foundations" while drawing attention to the raids against media outlets "openly critical of the current Turkish government".[128][129]EU Foreign Affairs chiefFederica Mogherini andEU Enlargement CommissionerJohannes Hahn said that the arrests went "against European values" and "are incompatible with the freedom of media, which is a core principle of democracy".[130]
The Turkish government seized the Gülen affiliatedZaman andToday's Zaman, on 4 March 2016. Turkish police entered the headquarters by force and fired tear gas at protesting journalists and civilians. Hundreds of protestors were injured.[131][132] In their effort to eradicate the movement from within the country theTurkish National Security Council has identified the movement as the "Gülenist Terror Organisation" ("Fethullahçı Terör Örgütü", FETÖ).[133] The government has also been targeting individuals and businessmen who have supported the movement's organizations and activities.
On 20 January 2015, Turkish police arrested around twenty suspects over alleged illegal surveillance on President Erdoğan and other officials. The arrests were described in local media as targeting Gülen's supporters.[134]
Since 2013, the Gülen movement has been accused by the Turkish government of collaborating with theKurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).[135]
In reaction to the15 July 2016 coup attempt which was led by a military faction operating outside the chain of command, the Turkish government quickly stated the coup's leader to be Gülen. In following days and weeks, a massive crackdown affected all entities affiliated with the Gülen movements, from individuals to businesses, newspapers and schools.[136]
Since the 2016 coup attempt, Turkey became more and more authoritarian under Erdoğan regime, according toReporters Without Borders as of 2025 90% of the media is controlled by the government and Turkey ranks 159th out of 180 countries in terms freedom of press.[137]Freedom House has been rating Turkey as "Not Free" since 2018.[138]
Between the 2016 coup attempt and July 2024, Turkish authorities investigated more than 705,172 Turkish citizens related to alleged "FETÖ" terrorism according to the government's own official statement,[citation needed]> however non-governmental sources estimate this number much higher.[139] In November 2021DEVA Party MP Yeneroğlu criticised that 1,576,000 people were investigated for alleged terrorism links between 2016 and 2020.[139]Eren Keskin the president ofHuman Rights Association stated that, she never seen such restrictions on freedom of speech in the 30 years of her career.[139] The government also detained over 390,000 citizens,[140] purged over 300,000 government officials[141][142] and closed more than 1,500 nongovernmental organizations, primarily for alleged ties to the Gülen movement.[143]
In 2018, approximately 25,000 Turkishasylum requests were filed by alleged Gülenists in the European Union (a rise of 50% from 2017), with Germany's share 10,000 and Greece's about 5,000.[144] In the U.S., according to news reports, a number of Gülenists who have successfully receiving political asylum status resettled in New Jersey.[145]
In 2019, it was reported thatInterpol had denied Turkey's appeals of the rejection of Turkey'sred notice requests regarding 464 fugitives. The decision cited Interpol's definition of the 2016 coup d'état attempt as a failed militaryputsch rather than an act of terrorism.[146]Finland andSweden, which applied forNATO membership in response toRussia's invasion of Ukraine in May 2022, rejected Turkey's applications for the extradition of many Gülen movement andPKK members.[147]
Despite Turkey's official request, the United States never extradited Gülen.[148]
As of 2020[update], Turkey had successfully pressured a number of countries, especially those in Africa and theformer Soviet Union, to extradite over 80 alleged Gülenists to Turkey.[149][150] On the contrary democratic countries like USA, UK, Germany, Sweden rejected Turkey's requests to extradite the movement members.[151][152]Amnesty International criticised extraditions from Moldova in 2018.[153]
Some Gülenists abroad have been kidnapped, allegedly by theMİT (Turkish Intelligence Service), and brought to Turkey. Multiple Turkish officials have confirmed that Turkey has been involved in more than 100 international abductions.[154][155] 68 of these abductions are publicly known. The number of abductions and the countries are:Azerbaijan (8),[156][157]Bahrain (1),Bulgaria (1),Gabon (3),[citation needed]Indonesia (1),Kazakhstan (2),Kenya (1),[158]Kosovo (6),[159]Kyrgyzstan (1),[160]Lebanon (1),Malaysia (11),Moldova (7),[161]Myanmar (1),Pakistan (4),Saudi Arabia (16),Sudan (1),Ukraine (3).[162]
Among Turkish citizens within Turkey that have been convicted for membership in the Gülen movement are Turkey's honorary president ofAmnesty International,Taner Kilic, and Amnesty's Turkish branch,Idil Eser, who were convicted in July 2020.[163] The editor ofCumhuriyet,Can Dündar, wassentenced in absentia in December 2020 to 8 years and 9 months for aidingFETÖ (while not being a member) in theMİT trucks scandal.[164]
In June 2021, the Turkish-Kyrgyz educator and head of the Sapat educational network in Kyrgyzstan, Orhan Inandi, went missing fromBishkek, leading to mass protests. Inandi, who holds dual Turkish-Kyrgyz citizenship, had been living in Kyrgyzstan since 1995.[165] One month later, Turkish President Erdoğan said on July 5 that Turkish intelligence agents had abducted Inandi and accused him of being "a top Central Asian leader" of the Gülen movement.[166] Kyrgyz officials have denied claims they colluded with Turkish intelligence in the abduction.[165]
Gülen movement is adesignated terrorist group according to the following countries and international organizations:
Turkey, since May 2016[36]Gulf Cooperation Council, since October 2016[35]Pakistan,[168]Northern Cyprus, a governmentrecognised only by Turkey and considered by the international community to be part of theRepublic of Cyprus, also designated the Gülen movement as a terrorist organisation in July 2016.
In 2017, according to theForeign and Commonwealth Office and theBritish Parliament'sForeign Affairs Select Committee there was no "evidence to justify the designation of the Gülenists as a terrorist organisation by the UK".[39] The same year,Gilles de Kerchove, the EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator, said that theEuropean Union didn't see the Gülen movement as a terrorist organisation and that the EU would need "substantive" evidence to change its stance.[37][169] In 2018, in a conference with Turkish PresidentErdoğan, German ChancellorAngela Merkel said that Germany needed more evidence to classify the Gülen movement as a terrorist organisation.[170] The Gülen movement was included in the declaration in the trilateral memorandum signed by Turkey, Finland and Sweden during theNATO summit in Madrid on 28 June 2022, but it was not defined as a terrorist organisation.[171]
In a 2015 interview withZaman newspaper, Hikmet Çetinkaya, a long-time secularist journalist forCumhuriyet newspaper and a critic of Gülen, said he had been investigating the movement since 40 years and faced 170 lawsuits by Gülen. Despite decades of scrutiny, he stated that he never described Gülen or the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization and cannot do so, as he is someone to defend human rights, justice and democracy.[172]
Following theassassination of the Russian Ambassador to Ankara, Andrey Karlov, the Turkish government was reportedly investigating the assassin's links to the "Gülenist Terrorist Organisation" (FETÖ). In a speech,Turkish PresidentErdoğan said that the perpetrator was a member of FETÖ.[173][174]
In contrast, Russian officials have accused the shooter of aiming to damageRussia–Turkey relations[175][176] which had been normalising since the2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt.[177][178][179][180] Gülen described the killing as a "heinous act of terror" that pointed to a deterioration of security in Turkey.[181]
One of the suspects in the December 2016 murder of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov on Friday denied links to the faith-based Gülen movement and said he was affiliated with theMenzil Community sect in Turkey. One of 28 suspects in the case, police officer Hasan Tunç, who was friends with the assassin, said he is connected to the Menzil Community sect.[182]
While being both praised and criticised for being market friendly, the Gülen movement has established various professional associations and business networks. Among them Istanbul basedTUSKON is the major non-profit business confederation which aims to promote economic solutions as well as social and political ones. Another one called TUCSIAD is based in China, in addition to DTIK's Asia-Pacific Group which supports the Gülen movement outside of Turkey in China, hoping to influence Turkish politics from the outside.[citation needed]
"Trump explored cutting grants for schools tied to Erdogan foe".The Eagle. Archived fromthe original on 29 October 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link){{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)In 2005, years before the trials, a man affiliated with the Gulen movement approached Eric S. Edelman, then the American ambassador, at a party in Istanbul and handed him an envelope containing a handwritten document that supposedly laid out a plan for an imminent coup. But as Edelman recounted, he gave the documents to his colleagues and they were determined to be forgeries.
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