Who is Fethullah Gulen, the man blamed for coup attempt in Turkey?

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[h=1]Who is Fethullah Gulen, the man blamed for coup attempt in Turkey?[/h]By Amy La Porte, Ivan Watson and Gul Tuysuz, CNN
Updated 2149 GMT (0549 HKT) July 16, 2016





(CNN)Was a plan to overthrow Turkey's government really hatched behind a gated compound in a small, leafy Pennsylvania town, or is that merely a smoke screen?

In the throes of a military coup attempt, Turkey's embattled president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pointed the finger of blame squarely at his bitter rival: Fethullah Gulen.

At the center of this rivalry, a fundamental division in Turkish society between secularists -- some within the country's top military brass -- and Islamists, including Erdogan's AKP party.
It's this division that's destabilizing one of America's most important allies in the Middle East.
And at the center of all this is Gulen, a reclusive cleric who leads a popular movement called Hizmet.

 

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Who is this mysterious man in Pennsylvania?


The 75-year old imam went into self-imposed exile when he moved from Turkey to the United States in 1999 and settled in Saylorsburg, Pennsyvlania.


He rarely speaks to journalists and has turned down interview requests from CNN for more than four years.



Supporters describe Gulen as a moderate Muslim cleric who champions interfaith dialogue. Promotional videosshow him meeting with Pope John Paul II in the Vatican in the 1990s. He also met frequently with rabbis and Christian priests in Turkey.

Gulen has a loyal following -- known as Gulenists -- in Turkey, who all subscribe to the Hizmet movement.

Hizmet is a global initiative inspired by Gulen, who espouses what The New York Times has described as "a moderate, pro-Western brand of Sunni Islam that appeals to many well-educated and professional Turks.


" Nongovernmental organizations founded by the Hizmet movement, including hundreds of secular co-ed schools, free tutoring centers, hospitals and relief agencies, are credited with addressing many of Turkey's social problems.


The preacher and his movement also spawned a global network of schools and universities that operate in more than 100 countries.

In the United States, this academic empire includes Harmony Public Schools, the largest charter school network in Texas.

Within Turkey, volunteers in the Gulen movement also own TV stations, the largest-circulation newspaper, gold mines and at least one Turkish bank.

 

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[h=3]Gulen: A coup architect or a scapegoat?[/h]
As a wave of violence washed over Turkey on Friday night, leaving at least 161 people dead, a defiant Erdogan addressed his country, saying the coup had been quashed and demanding punishment for the man he deems responsible.



"I call on the United States and President Barack Obama. Dear Mr. President, I told you this before. Either arrest Fethullah Gulen or return him to Turkey. You didn't listen. I call on you again, after there was a coup attempt. Extradite this man in Pennsylvania to Turkey! If we are strategic partners or model partners, do what is necessary," Erdogan said.



In a statement, Gulen denied any connection to the coup attempt and even suggested the whole thing may have been staged.
"I do not say this is the case, only that it could be the case," he said.
"As someone who suffered under multiple military coups during the past five decades, it is especially insulting to be accused of having any link to such an attempt. I categorically deny such accusations," Gulen said.
His supporters from the Alliance for Shared Values on Developments in Turkey also denied Gulen's involvement in a statement released on Friday.
"For more than 40 years, Fethullah Gulen and Hizmet participants have advocated for, and demonstrated their commitment to, peace and democracy. We condemn any military intervention in domestic politics of Turkey. Comments by pro-Erdogan circles about the movement are highly irresponsible," the group said.

 

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[h=3]Not the first coup accusation[/h]
The Turkish government also accused Gulen's supporters of spearheading an unsuccessful coup attempt in Turkey in January 2014.


Erdogan, a religious conservative, has compared Gulen and his supporters to a virus and a medieval cult of assassins.
In an interview with CNN at the time, a top official from Erdogan's ruling AKP party called the Gulen movement a "fifth column" that had infiltrated the Turkish police force and judiciary.
"We are confronted by a structure that doesn't take orders from within the chain of command of the state," parliament member and deputy AKP chairman Mahir Unal told CNN. "Rather, it takes orders from outside the state."
During the 2014 skirmish, in a rare email interview published in The Wall Street Journal, Gulen denied any involvement in a political conspiracy.
"We will never be a part of any plot against those who are governing our country," he wrote.

 

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Gulen and Erdogan: fierce adversaries


The rivalry seen today has not always existed. In fact, throughout much of the last decade, the Gulen movement was also a strong Erdogan supporter.

Pro-Gulen media outlets backed sprawling investigations of alleged coup plots organized by Turkish military commanders. Dozens of military officers, as well as secular writers, academics and businessmen, waited for years in prison for trials that critics called witch hunts.

At that time, it also became increasingly dangerous to criticize the Gulen movement.

Police arrested and imprisoned writer Ahmet Sik for more than a year, accusing him of supporting a terrorist organization. A court banned his book "The Imam's Army," which took a critical look at the Gulen movement, before it was even published.

Now out of prison, Sik said the longstanding alliance between Turkey's two most prominent Islamic leaders -- Erdogan and Gulen -- had collapsed into a bitter power struggle.

"There was a forced marriage, and the fight that began with who would lead the family is continuing as an ugly divorce," Sik said.

"On the one side, there is the Gulen community, a dark and opaque power that can damage the most powerful administration in Turkish history.

And on the other side, you have an administration that under the guise of fighting this community can and has suspended all legal and democratic principles," he said.

 

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Secretary of State John Kerry, pictured today in Luxembourg, said he would entertain an extradition request

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Erdogan, left, and Gulen, right, were close allies in the 1990s but are now bitterly opposed to each other

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US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, pictured, accused his former ally Recep Erdogan of staging the coup to generate sympathy and provide a pretext to order a clampdown on civil rights and democracy in Turkey

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Addressing a rally in Istanbul today, Recep Erdogan, pictured, accused Gulen of organising last night's plot

 

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[h=1]Narcissist who threatens us all: MARK ALMOND tells how Erdogan is seen as a president who abuses office to benefit his family and cronies[/h]By MARK ALMOND FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 01:55, 17 July 2016 | UPDATED: 03:19, 17 July 2016

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Pomp: President Erdogan enjoys lavish ceremony

 

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The £400 million palace of Turkey’s President Erdogan is the biggest in the world. It is also a monstrosity. Thirty times the size of the White House, all the seats of government of Turkey’s Nato allies could be contained inside its vast marble halls and endless corridors.



No wonder the sprawling modernist structure is compared to the People’s Palace built by Romania’s dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. It actually looks more like a massive public lavatory. Saddam himself would blanch at the silk wallpaper in the bathrooms, the cabinets displaying gold inlaid glasses that cost £250 each, and the 63 lifts. The carpet bill was a staggering £7.8 million.




It was here that blood was shed during the botched coup. And it is in its absurd dimensions that we can learn so much about the overweening, ego-inflated ambitions of its prime resident – and, more critically, of the dangerous consequences of the failed putsch. The stakes could scarcely be higher.




From his humble beginnings, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rise to the top ought to be a classic heart-warming story. But his taste in mega-architecture reflects a personality that has more in common with the most grandiose of Ottoman Sultans. The high-handed way in which he overrode normal rules and budgets to push through his gigantic living memorial is why critics call him an elected dictator.




The coup may have fizzled out, showing Erdogan had support in the streets. But many reasons why the other half of Turks resent his way of ruling are still there. To them, he is a president who abuses office to benefit his family and cronies.



He is seen as pushing Islamic fundamentalism on them through the back door. This matters to Britain because Turkey lies at the junction of the planet’s tectonic plates in so much more than simple geography. A civil war – even rumbling instability – is hugely dangerous for the rest of Turkey’s Nato allies. With Russia to the north, Syria and Iraq to the south and Iran in the east, Turkey has acted as Nato’s south-eastern bastion for decades.

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Sprawling: The £400 million palace of Turkey’s President Erdogan is the biggest in the world

 

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Just take last year’s refugee crisis to see what problems the West could face if Turkey goes off the rails. Add the country’s millions to those already funnelling into Europe from the Middle East to get an idea of the worst-case scenario.



In recent decades, Turkey seemed to combine democracy with a strong military, adding to the West’s general security. That confidence was shattered even when the military coup fizzled out yesterday. Its aftershocks will disturb Turkey and us for the foreseeable future.


At its worst, people fear Turkey could be entering the downward spiral that has engulfed Iraq and Syria in civil war and terrorism. That is the last thing anyone in the West should want. Prayer mats are out everywhere for stability on Nato’s south-east flank. The crowds opposing the coup should not lull us, or President Erdogan, into thinking national unity has won the day. Turkey is still bitterly polarised.
Yesterday’s triumphant return to office cannot silence widespread allegations of corruption and abuse of office against Erdogan. Intolerant of even jokes at his expense, he has prosecuted the media which report allegations against him and his family.

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At its worst, people fear Turkey could be entering the downward spiral that has engulfed Iraq





But many ordinary Turks admire their Teflon president – even after pictures emerged of the bank-teller’s cash-counting machine found in his son’s home, along with shoe-boxes stuffed with dollars and euros.


The West used to accept Erdogan’s ability to mix his appeal to the Muslim majority with sensible economic policies. It thought he was at heart a rational man rather than an Islamist playing at a Western-style politician.




As long as the economy grew, so did Erdogan’s popularity at home, while the West saw him as a model for states undergoing revolution in the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011. But as the years went by,

Erdogan became more autocratic and more religious. Fourteen years in power have given him the patronage to reshape the civil service and military in his own image. The rebel officers hated that.
Like many authoritarians, he is both capricious and cynical. His response to the Arab Spring showed this when he suddenly denounced his ‘friend’ President Assad of Syria as a blood-soaked tyrant. Similarly, he switched from dialogue to all-out war against the Kurdish minority.



The same dirty game was going on when he switched from backing the jihadi rebels against Assad to supporting the US-led war on Islamic State. Having let Islamist radicals pour across the border with Syria, Erdogan suddenly declared himself their enemy. They have hit back inside Turkey, so now the country needs a strong man to defend it.



Erdogan has tried Europe’s patience but its elites were too quick to think the coup was the solution. Like Turkey’s liberals, they are scornful of this self-made man’s mega-ego, but these criticisms wash over 50 per cent of Turks.
They voted for him. We didn’t. It is his trump card. In all this chaos, Erdogan reigns supreme. That is his strength and Turkey’s tragedy. Terrorism and Friday night’s coup are body blows to the country’s economy. This could push millions of Turks into joining migrants from the Middle East. It is a nightmare haunting Brussels and Berlin.



Now, Erdogan is out for revenge. Even opponents of the coup fear his purge will sweep them up too. The West was losing influence in the run-up to the coup. Now Erdogan’s price will be for Washington and Europe to sacrifice some of their principles and interests to recover his friendship.


Are we willing to go that far? What choice do we have? And where will the fallout of the coup end?

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Popular: Erdogan reigns supreme

 

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Early in his career Mr Erdogan made a telling remark he was later to regret. Democracy is like a train, he said; you get off once you have reached your destination. Now many of his party’s critics fear that Turkey’s president may be getting close to that goal.

 

[busterhyman]

erdogan-president that abuses office to benefit his family and cronies. so basically like everyone in power