Hizmet Movement (Gulen Movement)

Abdullah Bozkurt

An unusually vitriolic campaign waged by Turkey's authoritarian leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, against opponents and critics using baseless accusations and full-blown conspiracies has torn apart unity and bipartisanship even on the most critical national security matters.

The main reason Erdoğan and his allies in the government have blatantly abused their positions is in order to survive politically following the massive corruption investigations that incriminated the president, his family members and close associates. As a result, they sought refuge in conspiratorial stories and have attempted to pass the buck to others for their wrongdoings rather than take responsibility for their actions.

The main opposition Republican Peoples' Party (CHP) leader, who received support from some 13 million voters, was publicly declared a “traitor” by both Erdoğan and his caretaker, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, because the CHP has been doing what it is meant to, scrutinizing and checking government policies and actions. Exposing corruption and laying bare what seems to be illegal and illicit support of armed extremist groups by Erdoğan in Syria clearly falls under the mandate of any legitimate opposition in any country.

If CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is a “traitor,” as claimed by political Islamists, then all 13 million voters who supported him and his party during the last elections in March must be aiding and abetting this traitor as co-conspirators. This defies logic, reason and common sense, yet Erdoğan and his allies, using mouthpiece media, continue to incorporate this idea of treason against any critical comments, calling any critic a traitor.

The same approach has been used against supporters of the third major party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), as well because it was also lumped into the same category by the political hacks in the ruling party. We can add some 7 million Turks who voted for the MHP to the pool in the “traitors club.” Some 3 million Kurds who supported the pro-Kurdish party, mainly in Turkey's southeastern and eastern parts, also belong in the same category, according to the logic employed by political Islamists. In mathematical terms, 57 percent of Turkish voters are viewed as traitors, according to Erdoğan, as only 43 percent supported his party in the March elections.

Moving to business groups, Erdoğan also called then-President of the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (TÜSİAD) Muharrem Yılmaz a traitor in January of this year following the business group's issuance of a strong warning to the government in which it said foreign investment would not come to a country where there is no respect for the rule of law. TÜSİAD's former head was simply talking about his legitimate concerns that foreign investment will not be made in a country in which there is no respect for the rule of law, where legal codes conflict with EU rules, public procurement laws have been amended dozens of times and companies are pressured through tax fines.

Considering that TÜSİAD members constitute 80 percent of Turkey's total foreign trade, provide 50 percent of the employment in the economy, barring agriculture and public employment and generate half of the nation's economic value, excluding the public sector, describing an influential business group as traitors does not make any sense from a sound policy decision vantage point. The Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), the largest business advocacy group in Turkey, represents some 55,000 entrepreneurs and is very popular at home and abroad for delivering positive results on boosting trade. The group is especially savvy in lobbying on behalf of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and active in 140 countries with business group partners. TUSKON was directly attacked by Erdoğan in public rallies as well.

The independent and critical media is a usual suspect in the eye of Erdoğan as well. He often accuses them of selling the country's interests to foreigners, publicly bashing journalists and media outlets and accusing them of being traitors to the nation. One leading investigative reporter was actually indicted on treason charges in politically motivated judicial proceedings when he exposed massive profiling by the government on unsuspecting citizens based on their ideological, racial, religious and political affiliations. The government used this illegal data to bar applicants from government jobs or deny them from receiving a fair shot at public tenders and contracts. The independent print media has some 50 percent share of the overall circulation figures of 4.5 million in Turkey which means that Erdoğan sees half the Turkish media as enemies and traitors.

Last but not least, Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who has inspired a worldwide social movement called Hizmet that is active in education, charity and intercultural dialogue, is also a member of the “traitors' club.” Hizmet volunteers have established high-achieving schools with a special focus on science education in some 160 countries. Gülen made it onto Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013 and was at the top of the list of "The World's Top 20 Public Intellectuals" put together by the magazines Foreign Policy and Prospect in 2008.

Erdoğan, who had been praising Gülen for years, suddenly decided to turn against him after corruption investigations incriminated Erdoğan and his family members in December of last year. Like a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar and face covered with smears of crumbs and chocolate chips, Erdoğan had to quickly blame someone else for the empty jar. That is what he did when he accused Gülen of orchestrating corruption probes without offering a single shred of evidence to support these ridiculous claims. Erdoğan's sudden interest in demonizing Gülen is a result of the effectiveness of Gülen in discrediting the Islamist credentials Erdoğan falsely claims in order to enrich his family and promote his political ambitions.

As a result, Gülen and his some 15 million followers in Turkey and abroad must also fall into the category of traitor so that Erdoğan and his cronies, who exploit religion for political purposes, can cling to power. On Thursday, it was reported that the Hizmet movement was denounced as a national security threat in the meeting of the National Security Council (MGK) convened under Erdoğan's leadership. Since the minutes of the meeting are secret, we do not know how accurate the reporting is. Yet we know that Erdoğan recently announced that the Hizmet movement will be included on the list of national security threats, which is often referred to as the “red booklet,” and is updated by MGK. His comments represent a complete reversal from his earlier position in which he criticized the existence of the “red booklet” in March 2013 as a source of “artificial threats” used to put pressure on society.

If everyone Erdoğan publicly called a traitor makes the list, I suppose the overwhelming majority of the Turkish nation must be considered a national security risk. As long as Erdoğan is unprepared to accept the bitter reality that the world does not fit in his paranoid view, millions will not escape this scapegoat status. Erdoğan's outbursts and the witch hunt conducted by his allies in government, have gone beyond being merely a symbolic campaign to rally a political Islamist base around a hateful narrative. It has already disrupted the daily workings of the government with ill-advised measures imposed by the influx of political appointees. These actions are all inconsistent with an increase in the quantity and scope of Erdoğan's attacks against opponents and critics.

I believe the verdict is already in: No regime can survive if it continues to treat its citizens as suspects and potential threats. Judging from the series of missteps and failures in response to emerging crises and challenges, the government seems to have been disorganized. It is also plagued by infighting among competing factions. That is why Erdoğan's rule is bound to eventually fail.

Published on Today's Zaman, 31 October 2014, Friday

Hakan Şükür, a Turkish member of Parliament and former international football player expressed that before his resignation from the AK party, a high-level ministry position was offered to him.

World-renown former football star, İstanbul deputy Hakan Şükür

In an interview to Aksiyon magazine, the former famous international football player and, until recently, deputy for the ruling AK Party (Justice and Development Party) Hakan Şükür talked about how he decided to quit his party.

Parliamentarian deputy Şükür revealed that three weeks before his resignation, notable party officials from the Prime Ministry's inner circle informed him about a high-level ministry job, and asked him to prepare.

Although the offer was quite appealing, the recent developments in Turkey’s agenda, including the government’s decision to close all privately-owned prep schools, made his mind up to leave the AK Party on December 16, 2013, a day before last year's famous anti-corruption inquiry went public. “The day when I resigned, party politicians called my relatives to ask them to pursue me to change my mind, to remind me that they had offered a ministry post.”

"I didn't resign by Gülen's order"

He noted that he didn't regret being involved in politics. Şükür underlined that he thought of resigning several times before the prep schools' closure came to the agenda. But when he discussed his resign decision with Fethullah Gülen, a prominent scholar whom he respected, he advised him to continue while good developments happen in Turkey. For that reason, Hakan rejected all claims that Gülen had ordered him to join or leave the party. He underlined that he didn’t have the chance to ask Gülen’s advice before he decided to join.

In a statement after his resignation, Hakan stated that he had “accepted Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s invitation [to take part in politics].” Erdoğan’s ruling AK Party has left its mark on significant achievements and reforms over the past 11 years. However, he said the irrational approach he saw on some issues stained his conscience, and made him feel like he had to depart.

"They want me to be involved in match-fixing"

Hakan Şükür claimed that amid increasing incidences of football match-fixing, he was asked to give a briefing at parliament on a law which reduced high penalties for match fixes. Although the order came from the party leader, Şükür refused, saying he was against that move.

The match-fixing investigation concerns claims that some club officials and footballers were rigging games in the Spor Toto Super League, which ended in 2011 with Fenerbahçe winning the trophy, as well as the Bank Asya League 1. Dozens of individuals, including agents, former football players and club managers, were arrested as part of the probe, with Fenerbahçe Chairman Yıldırım being the highest-profile figure taken into custody. The first hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 14.

Published on BGNNews, 02 November 2014, Sunday

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Mümtazer Türköne

The Sabah newspaper greeted the news of the 10-hour National Security Council (MGK) meeting with the headline “Parallel structure added to red book.” But this was, of course, a complete lie. For a long time now, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been indicating that the Hizmet movement -- which he refers to as the “parallel structure” -- would be officially added to the National Security Strategy Concept Paper as a “domestic threat.” This is a part of his personal vendetta and Erdoğan has kept up this propaganda war even as president of Turkey.

The basic strategy pursued by Erdoğan in trying to stop the investigations that sprung from the Dec. 17 corruption revelations has been to claim that these investigations were in fact part of a coup aimed at bringing down his government. In response to the question of “Alright, but who carried out this coup?” the accusatory response from Erdoğan has been that it is none other than esteemed civil organization the Hizmet movement. All of which is why thea inclusion of the Hizmet movement in the MGK's “red book” as a “domestic threat” is a serious step that only works to strengthen Erdoğan's strategy against the corruption allegations facing him.

In the end though, as a result of the nearly half-day MGK meeting, the decision to add the Hizmet movement to the “red book” was in fact not made. In fact, there was never even any mention made during the meeting of the “red book.” Had the agenda in fact had anything to do with Turkey's security priorities, a phrase such as “security strategy was debated and priorities were re-defined” would have made its way into the press statement. Instead, the press statement stresses that the “struggle against parallel structures will continue.” And in the meantime, the phrase “illegal structures hidden under legal appearances” bring to mind more than anything the parallel justice and public safety structures wielded by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-linked Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) structure in the Southeast.

There is another important detail herein: the term “parallel structure,” which has worked as a sort of lifesaver for Erdoğan in the wake of Dec. 17, is a carefully used definition. Used by Erdoğan to describe Fethullah Gülen's Hizmet movement, it has never been a term he has used in plural form, i.e., “parallel structures.” In fact, the plural form is an expression we have heard from Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. When Erdoğan turned over his position at the helm of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and as prime minister to Davutoğlu, the latter was someone who he had praised for his “resolve in struggling against the parallel structure.” But Davutoğlu, on his part, has always talked of “parallel structures,” and “every sort of parallel structure.” And so clearly the term “parallel structures” that was included in the midnight statement from the MGK about its meeting belonged not to Erdoğan but rather to Davutoğlu. This striking detail tells us that in fact deep differences in view marked the behind-closed-doors debates over whether or not to include the Hizmet movement in the “red book”; it further shows us that Erdoğan did not get what he wanted.

In talking about the MGK meeting, Erdoğan was definitive in his use of the phrase “parallel structure,” and resolute in his insistence that national security priorities were to be re-defined. This was his assertion that the Hizmet movement would be included in the “red book.” In this way, he has asserted, countries close to Turkey will also be made aware of this “threat,” while prosecutors carrying out corruption investigations will also be forced to consider it as a factor.

But since the MGK's “red book” has no power to influence legal investigations and since, as a document, it is not in fact shared with countries close to Turkey, clearly these words from Erdoğan were simply propaganda. To wit, back in 2006, Erdoğan had rejected a request from the MGK to examine the “red book” in connection with an ongoing case at that point on the basis that this document is confidential. And the secrecy surrounding this document is also why it could never be shared with other countries. What the National Security Strategy Concept Paper defines are threat priorities and the type of precautions to be taken against these threats. In brief, Erdoğan's propaganda tactic simply does not harmonize with how the “red book” actually functions.

The real truth is that the statement that came in the wake of the recent MGK meeting reveals that Erdoğan's propaganda tactic has fully collapsed and that his proposal was also not taken seriously by the members of this high board. And so it is that the headline from the Sabah newspaper about how the Hizmet movement was “added to the red book” is nothing other than one giant lie, invented to try and pick up Erdoğan and his words from where they have collapsed on the floor.

Published on Today's Zaman, 01 November 2014, Saturday

In a statement that came as a confession, a reporter from the pro-government Sabah daily said a decision was made at the National Security Council (MGK) meeting on Thursday to wage an effective war against all religious groups in the country.

Speaking during a TV program on TV Net channel on Friday evening, Sabah reporter Abdurrahman Şimşek, who shared his comments about the MGK meeting, said: “There is such a joint decision. No structure will be allowed in the state from now on. Not Süleymancıs, Nakşis, Menzilcis or İskenderpaşıcıs or any members of the İsmailağa community. There will be an effective fight against all [religious] groups.”

These religious communities have been in existence in Turkey for years and they have hundreds of thousands of followers. Even during coup times when immense pressure was imposed on these communities, they managed to survive.

Thursday's MGK meeting saw many firsts. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who occupied the seat of the prime minister for the past 12 years at MGK meetings, chaired the meeting for the first time as president, while former Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu attended the meeting as prime minister for the first time. It was the first time that Deputy Prime Ministers Numan Kurtulmuş, Yalçın Akdoğan and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu attended the MGK meeting. Thursday's MGK meeting lasted for 10 hours and 25 minutes, the longest MGK meeting in the history of the Turkish Republic. It was even longer than the notorious nine-hour MGK meeting on Feb. 28, 1997, following which a military coup, dubbed a post-modern coup, took place.

According to a story in the Taraf daily over the weekend, a member of government at the meeting suggested that the so-called parallel structure, a term used by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and pro-government circles to refer to the faith-based Hizmet movement inspired by Turkish-Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, be recognized as a terrorist organization and be added to the Red Book, a national security document in which major threats against the nation are enumerated, and other government members supported the proposal. However, since members of the military at the meeting said if such a step is going to be taken it should apply to all religious communities as well as the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Kurdish Communities' Union (KCK), the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and all their extensions, the government could not insist on its proposal.

Prior to the MGK meeting, pro-government media outlets ran stories suggesting that the “parallel state” would be recognized as a terrorist organization and go into the Red Book during the MGK meeting. President Erdoğan also made statements in the same vein.

The Hizmet movement promotes interfaith dialogue and the resolution of problems through peaceful methods all over the world. However, Erdoğan and his former party, the AK Party, have been at odds with Hizmet, especially since Dec. 17, 2013, when a major government graft operation implicating senior government members became public. Erdoğan claims the operation was orchestrated by the Hizmet movement with the motive of overthrowing the AK Party government. Erdoğan has not provided any evidence to prove his claim, and the movement denies the accusation.

The Taraf report, which the daily said was based on government sources, said there was harsh criticism of Interior Minister Efkan Ala at the MGK meeting from the military for the increasing violence in the country perpetrated mainly by the PKK and its sympathizers.

A statement made following the MGK meeting, prepared by a commission led by Deputy Prime Minister Akdoğan, included an article at the top voicing determination to fight against all parallel structures. Taraf said this was done deliberately to give the impression that MGK discussed the fight against the so-called parallel state for hours, although government sources told the daily that the parallel state issue was discussed for only 25 minutes.

Issues such as the PKK, the KCK and pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) protests in the country's southeast, attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terror organization, the passage of peshmerga from Turkey to the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani and measures to be taken against domestic and foreign threats were discussed at the meeting.

In the meantime, leader of Workers' Party (İP) Doğu Perinçek, who spoke at an event organized by his party in Balıkesir province, said there will be extensive mobilization to make people aware of the need for the eradication of religious communities in the society.

When he was released from prison early this year after serving for some time for being a member of Ergenekon, a shadowy crime network that has alleged links within the state and is suspected of plotting to topple the government, Perinçek said he would collaborate with Erdoğan for the eradication of religious communities, the Hizmet movement in particular.

In another development, Democratic Left Party (DSP) leader Masum Türker told Today's Zaman that the lengthy MGK meeting indicates that national security is about to fail.

Referring to a phrase in the MGK statement that talks about fighting all “illegal structures that look legal,” he said this threatens all civil society organizations in society.

According to Türker, since its foundation in 2002, the AK Party government has aimed to kill off civil society in the country.

Published on Sunday's Zaman, 02 November 2014, Sunday

Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has criticized the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) attempt to label the faith-based Hizmet movement a terrorist organization at last week's National Security Council (MGK) meeting and put this classification into the “Red Book,” saying the content of this text cannot change in accordance with the ruling party's views.

The “Red Book” is a national security document in which major threats against the nation are enumerated.

Speaking to journalists on Sunday on the sidelines of a party meeting held in Antalya province, Kılıçdaroğlu said every country has texts that include certain decisions related to the national security of that country, and that this is called the “Red Book” in Turkey. However, he noted that this text should be the product of consensus, and its content should not be changed in line with the ruling party's attitude and views regarding Turkey's future.

The CHP leader also criticized the length of the MGK meeting -- 10 hours and 25 minutes -- saying it shows that the government is unable to fulfill its duties and that there is serious chaos and a vacuum in the administration of the country.

“In a healthy democracy, a MGK meeting would not last so long,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Felicity Party (SP) leader Mustafa Kamalak has harshly criticized a MGK decision that reportedly deemed the Hizmet movement a threat to national security.

Commenting on the MGK's endorsement of a plan of action to bring religious communities under control, the SP leader said, “Though the state regime has experienced disruptions on occasion [throughout the history of the Turkish Republic], religious movements -- including the Hizmet movement -- have continued to survive despite official action [against them].”

Kamalak criticized last week's MGK decision to crack down on “parallel structures” that stand out as a threat to national security. He said an MGK meeting held in 1997, which overthrew a coalition government led by a now-defunct conservative party, acted more honorably than the latest MGK meeting.

The term “parallel structure,” which was coined by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after a major corruption investigation that went public on Dec. 17, 2013, implicating several government officials, refers to alleged sympathizers of the Hizmet movement in the state bureaucracy. Hizmet is a popular social movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Kamalak added that his party has been subjected to a backlash from other circles for supporting the act of voicing government misdeeds. “We will continue to express our opinions by ignoring statements that denounce our stance.” The SP leader also recalled that before the graft probes in December of last year, ruling party officials were the staunchest supporters of the Hizmet movement. “Then-Prime Minister Erdoğan would pay tribute [to the Hizmet movement] by saying, ‘God bless you [the Hizmet movement], you did what the state could not.' Indeed, he was right,” Kamalak said.

Referring to the police officers who conducted the investigation last winter, Kamalak maintained that those officers have been subjected to fierce intimidation since they unveiled the government's misdeeds. “They [the government] manipulate the judiciary; they call robbers heroes and the police traitors. This is complete injustice and unlawfulness,” he said.

He also commented on the frequency of workplace accidents, which was recently exemplified by a coal mine accident in Ermenek, Karaman province, in which 18 miners have been trapped since Monday due to a flood.

“What do you expect when such a corrupt order exists? That [the corruption] is what the SP has been fighting against,” he stated.

Published on Sunday's Zaman, 02 November 2014, Sunday

Nigerian Education Minister Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau has said his country will always be indebted to the Turkish schools operating in the country.

Praising the Turkish schools operating in seven Nigerian provinces, Shekarau said his three children had graduated from the Turkish schools, adding that high-quality education provided at these schools is a “wonderful example” for other schools in Nigeria. Expressing his gratitude to Turkish educators and entrepreneurs for their contributions to Nigerian education, Shekarau said, “I will always feel indebted to the Turkish schools.”

“I do not think those [Turkish] schools were established as trade interests,” said Shekarau, adding, “Turkish schools contributed to the survival of Nigeria.”

Stating that he himself had experienced the positive contribution of those schools to the Nigerian community, Shekarau said he was excited when Turks established a university in the Nigerian city of Abuja. He also added that his daughter has been studying for a master's degree at the Turkish university at Abuja. “My children have spent part of their lives at Turkish schools. I am sure they will have good memories to share when they grow up and become responsible adults,” he said.

Describing the Turkish schools as “encouraging” and “inspiring,” Shekarau said the best investment one can make is in education, adding that those who contributed to the Turkish schools in Nigeria had made an investment in the future of Nigeria.

The faith-based Hizmet movement, inspired by the teachings of esteemed Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, administers a wide network of schools and more than 2,000 educational establishments in more than 120 countries around the world. These schools provide an education to thousands of students and are well known for their achievements in the International Science Olympiads.

Published on Sunday's Zaman, 02 November 2014, Sunday

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Abdülhamit Bilici

Caliph Omar, who is renowned for his attention to justice, paid a visit to sacred sites after taking over control of Jerusalem from Governor Sophronius. He visited Masjid al Aqsa and later also wanted to see the Church of Resurrection where, according to Christian belief, Jesus was crucified and prepared for burial. Sophronius, who was walking with Omar, recalled that he performed prayers everywhere he visited and asked him to do the same at the church. Omar rejected the request saying, “If I perform prayer here, Muslims will build a mosque on this very spot.” Instead he found an empty area to the south of the church for prayer, upon which Muslims thereafter erected a mosque named after Omar.

Caliph Omar, before leaving the city, introduced guarantees for the local people so they could freely exercise their religious freedoms. The pact, undersigned by the Caliph and his commanders, guaranteed the properties and lives of all people regardless of whether Omar, the Caliph, was sick or healthy. He further assured the people that there would be no interference in their sacred places, symbols or religious beliefs; that churches would not be converted into residential homes; that the previous rights of the people would be preserved; and that there would be no pressure or repression. Overall, he assured that nobody would be harmed.

This approach, which has served as the basis of how Muslims should treat others, has been upheld from then until now. The Ottoman experience confirms this. A book entitled “Macedonia under the Ottoman Rule,” based on archive resources, provides a clear example of the approach in the Balkans. Yako, a Jewish man who was living in Skopje, addressed a petition to the Office of the Governor on Aug. 1, 1870 to sell alcoholic beverages in his store in Tahtakale. The petition was referred to the municipality for review the next day. The local assembly, in its reply six days later, stated that even though the location was suitable for launching such a business, it was necessary to seek the opinion of the administrative assembly as the store was facing a church. The administrative assembly in turn denied permission on the grounds that it was facing a church and there were a large number of people walking by the store.

This is part of our legacy of religious tolerance but to understand our current status one must simply look around. Everybody talks about the idealized state of religious freedom and acceptance during the Ottoman era but in reality, there is a state of savagery everywhere which is intolerant of other religions and even dissenting Muslim views. The radical and extremist movements, including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its derivatives, who convert sectarian and ethnic identity into political fanaticism do the greatest harm to Muslims. Beheadings, the destruction and burning of educational institutions and places of worship, young people being killed violently while delivering meat to the poor, are all products of this mindset.

Talking to the person sitting next to me on a plane back from Erzurum, I realized the situation was even graver. The man was a 30-year old pharmacist with a long, black beard. A friend of his had told him to shave his beard or he would be targeted in the belief that he was a member of ISIL. He did not shave his beard but some of his friends did. In particular, he complained about the promotion of views and current ideas that did not originate in these lands. Recently Muhammed Keskin from the İsmailağa Islamic community also wrote about efforts to rid Turkey of its national identity and of Turkish Islam in his piece published in Marifet Magazine. He was thereafter strongly criticized by those who welcome foreign religious movements and ideas into the country. Perhaps this is the main reason for growing hostility by the oligarchic structure against the Hizmet movement, one of the representatives of constructive religious movements in Turkey and around the world. Some may not realize the coming danger and rely on the so-called parallel state arguments but Fethullah Gülen, aware of the threat posed by this trend against all Muslims, draws attention to the danger by sponsoring ads in European, American and more recently the Kurdish media. Gülen, who condemns the violence committed by ISIL, particularly as it relies on religious discourse, cautions against the danger in Kobani and delivers messages embracing all people and groups in the region.

It is important to preserve national independence but it is equally important to preserve the unique spiritual identity of the people as well. Unfortunately, Muslims who hold a twisted view of and approach to Islam are doing greater harm to their religion than their enemies.

Published on Today's Zaman, 31 October 2014, Friday

Ekrem Dumanlı

Those who came to power by promoting an Islamist ideology have been performing pretty poorly. Those who expected support from the people due to the unfair decisions of the National Security Council (MGK) up until recently are now trying to rely on this institution to achieve their goals. And unfortunately, no reasonable or liberal-minded politicians have been criticizing this or attracting attention to this mistake. What a terrible fear this is that silences people.

The final stage of the despotic nightmare of the so-called "New Turkey" is a return to the archaic practices of the old Turkey. An excessively pro-statist and repressive discourse has been inherited from that dark past. The government has set the stage for the execution of those who do not endorse its policies; critics are insulted and repressed; they argue that those who do not support their ideas are traitors. The pro-government, Pravda-like media first publishes slanderous remarks and reports, then prosecutors are asked to take action on the basis of these false reports, and some so-called informants are found to declare some innocent people to be guilty of criminality.

As if this were not grave enough, the government raised a discussion in the most recent MGK meeting about declaring some civil society organizations illegal; they even made up a category for them: “illegal organizations that seem to be legal.” Where is the legality in this description? This is such a loose definition that in the case of another party coming to power, the government could use the same categorization for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his family and friends. Not only Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), but also all religious communities, associations, foundations and groups can be considered to be in this category. This would be the end of participatory democracy.

Backstage reports indicate that the overall mood in the most recent MGK meeting was pretty tense. Contrary to expectations that the discussion on the so-called parallel state would last long, the discussion on this issue took 25 minutes. Even this was too much. The MGK should not be submitted to the hatred and fury of a person who holds personal calculations and considerations at a time when terror is widespread, chaos is approaching quickly on our borders, and the state is accused of supplying arms to illegal groups. Soldiers and police officers are being killed on the street; terrorists are declaring control in some cities; and while this is happening, some are building imagined enemies.

Media reports indicate that civilian members of the MGK insisted that the so-called "parallel state" be declared a terror organization. This is just ridiculous. The military wing of the Council, on the other hand, argued that all religious communities should be included in this definition. Well, we have been arguing this since the beginning; if you call a community or a group the "parallel state," all others will face a similar accusation; a so-called journalist working in the pro-government media did this. The health minister denied the journalist's claim because the accusation would include other communities as well. Any argument suggesting that any member of a religious community serving in the bureaucracy poses a threat will eventually lead to serious disruption. A witch hunt based on this premise will eventually include all people serving in the state administration, as well as their relatives and friends.

The fabricated crime of infiltrating the state is an antidemocratic approach that will serve as the basis for the incrimination of any targeted social group. Will the military buy this? It is hard to make a precise prediction, but the military has a fairly bad track record on this matter: in the Feb. 28 period, the MGK created the West Study Group (BÇG); of course, some civilian members of the Council also joined this initiative. But a legal process was initiated against this group, and some top military officers are still being tried for involvement in this initiative. The prime minister at the time, the ministers and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) administrators are not being tried in this case, but the military officers are. Nobody can guarantee that the military officers taking action for the manipulation of the MGK will not be prosecuted in future.

Sadly, some civilians, assuming the roles of military servicemen for themselves, rely on the Red Book to achieve their goals. When this is the logic used, one recalls the definition of domestic threats in the Soviet regime of the Cold War era. The current method resembles the brutality and repression used by Stalinists in their fight against the Trotskyists.

Stalin identified prosecutors who would comply with his wishes and initiated a witch hunt to remove all Trotskyists in the state. The investigations initiated by Prosecutor Andrey Vyshinsky were not limited to the supporters of Trotsky; all opponents were affected by this frenzy. And interestingly, Trotskyists who were declared terrorists were subjected to extensive repression through reliance on informants. Everybody knew that the assassination of Leningrad Party Chair Sergey Kirov was sponsored by Stalin and the deep state, but the repressors played their role well.

Anyway, the red regime manipulated the people through fabricated incidents. Until when? There is no Stalin now, nor is there his brutal regime. I wish the present-day prosecutors (İstanbul Chief Prosecutor Hadi Salihoğlu and prosecutor Fuzuli Aydoğdu) would draw lessons from the fate of Vyshinsky. I am sure they would draw some useful conclusions. It is no good for Turkey to rely on Cold War methods, given that even in the time of monarchy during the Ottoman era, we had a parliament. We thought that the era of placing pressure on the people through MGK was over; it is sad to see that some people are relying on the MGK and the Red Book. This is sad not because it hurts us but because it hurts this beautiful country.

You are wrong, Mr. Gülerce

Hüseyin Gülerce has been making the same claim for a while. I have preferred to stay silent so far because I thought our past acquaintance required mutual respect. He told us that he had no hard feelings when he quit. Unfortunately, since the day he left, he has directed some accusations at the Hizmet movement, Fethullah Gülen and Zaman. I would not object if what he said had been true. He either remembers wrongly or is deliberately lying. I pray it is the first. Otherwise, he would be responsible. I did not want to respond to his allegations because I thought he just remembered wrongly, but it appears that he is raising the same false accusations and making the same mistake everywhere. So it has become necessary to correct him and his statements.

Gülerce argues that the Zaman daily published a main story right after the Feb. 7 crisis reading, “The prosecutors were always right.” Well, where should I start with correcting this? It is a lie. Such a headline was never written. The Zaman daily did not print such a report, forgetting the distinction between news reporting and commentary, because that piece was an analysis rather than a news report. The main theme of that piece was the removal of the prosecutors, not whether or not the prosecutors did the right thing. The piece, recalling that the removal of the prosecutors because of instant criticisms would lead to serious repercussions, called for reason and calm. The piece was a news analysis reflecting the views of our correspondents, and was only a small part of the page.

The headline of the main story read: “The prosecutor was removed,” and only a small part of the whole report was news analysis. So, the argument that Zaman made an extensive major story was a big lie. So think about the rest, given that the initial argument was such a grave lie.

In addition, Mr. Gülerce wrote columns after Feb. 7 and Dec. 17 that criticized Erdoğan and the government. He stated in these columns that the Hizmet movement was defending itself. So this means that Gülerce is not convincing in his argument that he was terrified by the Feb. 7 incident and decided to leave the Hizmet movement after Dec. 17.

He further argues that Ahmet Turan Alkan, İhsan Dağı and Mümtaz'er Türköne made some grave accusations and that these could not be published without the consent of Gülen. Well, do you really believe this, Mr. Gülerce?

Mr. Gülerce, we are talking about a movement of volunteers, not an illegal organization. There is no application form for membership in the Hizmet movement, and there is no need to sign a document before leaving. If you like it, you join its activities; if you do not, you can join anybody you like. It is not true to argue that such a grassroots movement will be destroyed by repressive measures. If Allah does not consent, nobody will be able to finish it off. Besides, somebody has always tried to destroy others, including Alevis, left wingers, right wingers and Kurds. But no movement with social roots will disappear just because somebody asked for it. There is no need to offend people and identify them as criminals; it is a sinful act that calls for serious responsibility.

Published on Sunday's Zaman, 02 November 2014, Sunday

Oğuzhan Tekin

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government is aiming to take all steps to finish off Hizmet movement sympathizers by any means. Discrimination is one of these steps. Discrimination is a human rights violation. I would like to share five of my personal experiences, of many more, to show what kind of discrimination is being committed against the movement's sympathizers.

1) I recently visited my brother-in-law. While we were having dinner with his family, his wife told us what she was confronted with during a job interview.

She graduated from a religious high school (imam hatip school) during the Feb. 28, 1997 postmodern coup era. Because of the headscarf ban, she could not go to university. She continued in a religious vocational school for two years, and then she completed her bachelors degree at a religious school. Because of the coup's headscarf ban, she waited for more than 10 years. The AK Party facilitated graduates of imam hatip schools to transition to religious faculties and removed the ban on headscarves in schools in practice, not as a legal regulation. Finally, she became a teacher of religion in the summer of 2014.

After gaining her diploma, she applied to a private high school near her neighborhood to become a teacher. The school is known to have a pro-AK Party stance. During the job interview, the school officials asked her what she thinks about the movement, whether she thinks the movement staged a coup against the government, whether she likes Erdoğan and Fethullah Gülen, which side she stands on and what her political stance is. No serious questions were asked about her professional or academic achievements. She hesitated to express her political stance. In the end she did not get the post.

2) I have a friend from university. We meet from time to time, not very often. He has worked at very prestigious private schools as a math teacher for the last 15 years. He is married to another a teacher and has a kid. He carries sympathies for the Hizmet movement but is not an active volunteer. The last school he worked at had international connections with various reputable schools in different countries. He wanted to gain international experience and applied to an international school in the Gulf region. His application was accepted. Then he and his family put all their belongings into storage last June and started to wait for visas. After gaining his visa, my friend went alone to rent an apartment for his family. He started teaching at the same time. When he finally settled down, he was planning to bring his family there. Two weeks later, after the school year had started, the director of the school called him and said: “Although you do not have any criminal record in your home country, because of the political conditions in Turkey, your consulate did not give us a positive reference in your clearance check. You were involved in politics and took an oppositional stand in politics. You have to leave the country.”

He is not interested in politics. He likes his job. For him, his family and his students are located at the center of life. I learned by coincidence that he had returned back last week and listened his story. He has expressed plans emigrate to a European country.

3) I have two close friends from my high school. We meet regularly at family gatherings. One month ago, I organized a breakfast. Although I called one of them many times, I could not reach him, and he is working for a government company. The other friend of mine, who works in the private sector, informed him about the breakfast. When we met at the breakfast, he told me that he had intentionally not answered my calls. He said: “You have connections to the Hizmet movement. I am sure you are being wiretapped, that is why I did not answer your calls. If you would like to reach me next time, it is better if your wife calls my wife to inform me. If the company finds out you are my friend, I will be fired from my job."

4) Two weeks ago I interviewed a Fatih University Law School graduate. He had had a full scholarship for his five-year bachelors. He graduated with an honors degree last June. He told me that he had applied to İstanbul University -- a state university -- for a master's degree in August. Although he met all the academic requirements for admission, he was refused. He was given a “zero” grade at the interview. He said that professors in the interview had said: “Fatih University is one of the Hizmet school institutions. Instead of giving high-quality education to students, the university brainwashes its students. There is no way for you to be accepted.” Neither him nor his other graduate friends from Fatih University were accepted for the degree. The professors made fun of the applicants.

By the way, on Sep. 25, the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality cancelled the public bus route from downtown to Fatih University, where 10,000 students were studying at the beginning of the winter semester.

5) I use a mechanic in my neighborhood. When my car is broken, I bring it this mechanic. I have known him for the past five years. Just before the opening of the 2014-2015 school year, he called me excitedly and told me that he would like to meet with me in relation to his son's school. The next morning, I went to his workplace. He told me that his son had been studying at one of the Hizmet movement-linked high schools for three years. His son had pushed his father to change his school. He wants to study at law school and become a judge. He thinks that if he studies at the current school, the government and the state will profile him. What a wise request for a 15-year-old student, isn't it? I told the mechanic that I was sure that he and his son had already been profiled and this profile would follow them through all steps of their lives. He changed his son's school.

Last week, a friend of mine from Ankara told me that they had taken their kids from one of the Hizmet-affiliated schools, but a few private schools in Ankara, known to be close to the government, refused to register the kids.

I am not mentioning the names of the people, dates and places in these real stories. This is Turkey; Big Brother is watching us. When I said I would write their stories, they were all scared of being affected. They all told me that I should keep their names secret.

The government has suspended the rule of law for the past year. A sort of martial law is being exercised. Hizmet movement sympathizers have become the main target of the government. Every day, they experience a different kind of human rights violation. Discrimination against sympathizers is the most common violation.

When Turkey resumes the "rule of law" again, we will face these past violations with shame.

Published on Today's Zaman, 03 November 2014, Monday

Fikir Atlasi*, Episode 13 (Full text)

I am Steve Gilliland**. I am American.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes known as the Mormons.

I have a wonderful wife and family, 8 children, 20 grandchildren.

And I have been involved with the Muslim people for about 8 years or so, through my church that has asked me to build bridges and help people get acquainted with each other amongst the Mormons and the Muslims.

I come from a church that is very structured as far as its organization is concerned.

We do a lot of good in the world and in the community. Mormons are known for their humanitarian work, but most of this is generated from the top down.

If people individually want to do things, they can, but usually they get permission from the church structure if they’re doing it within a religious sphere.

I found just the opposite in the Hizmet movement. There is no authoritarian leadership driving it.

There are wonderful inspired ideas from Mr. Gulen. But, people individually and in groups studied his work and then came up with their own applications of what he is telling them.

That was surprising to me that all over the country, all over Turkey, there are groups popping up who read what he had to say, were inspired by them, pulled together with a network of neighbors and friends and others, pulled their resources and developed the means to build schools, colleges, a newspaper, humanitarian programs, and other groups that try to bring people together, diverse people together to talk and to share and understand each other.

We have said many times if there is peace in the world, in the future, it is going to be people like members of the Hizmet Movement and others who will pull together to understand each other and talk it through and bring about peace.

Mr. Gulen is an impressive person not because of his person, or personality, or his organization but because of his ideas.

My impression of him is that he is very humble person.

He has a strong point of view about various things, but he seems like a very humble person, one who listens and encourages listening and sharing and building. It is his ideas that are the power.

I see the Hizmet movement as the best expression of Islam that I have seen anywhere.

The Prophet Muhammad said that, it is in the Quran, it says that, we are created in different societies, cultures and backgrounds as a challenge to come together and understand each other and to bring about peace.

That is, the whole thrust that I can see of the Gulen Movement is to bring people together, to understand each other as a way of bringing about peace.

Also, Islam doesn’t have any Pope or authoritarian leader to guide it. It is a people worship, it is an individual relationship between man and God, woman and God

And, so there is no structure there that anyone can turn to except the Book and to God.

Muslims gather together in communities and establish mosques and invite scholars to come in and teach them. But, that’s of their own spontaneous accord, and no one is telling them to do this, they are doing this out of their hearts.

I see that the same way in the Hizmet Movement. I don’t see Gulen running anything, I see him as expressing ideas that are very sound and based upon the teachings of the Quran and of Islam, but not just the Quran or Islam.

I think he represents the best in Christianity, the best in Buddhism, the best in Sikhism, on and on, the best of all world religions, I think, are represented in the philosophy of Fethullah Gulen.

The most striking aspect of the Hizmet Movement to me is the spontaneity of the people, the followers.

They bring forth their interpretation of the philosophy of Gulen and apply it in their own situation according to their needs and their circumstances.

I think that is the richest portion, the richest expression of religion, where people are not told what to do as much, that they are in tune with God, and pray about it and then apply it as God guides them.

As far as education is concerned, I see the key thrust of it is understanding, bringing people from different backgrounds, different economic levels, or from a great variety of experiences, coming together, studying together and helping to understand human beings, understand each other.

If we’re going to have peace in the world or solve the world’s problems, I think, first of all, we need to understand not just the physical aspects of the problems—which is an important part of education—but also the human aspects of the problems, and to develop people who have the skills of encountering people who are different than themselves and not being threatened by this because they know the people are people, and they have learned to communicate and be at home with them.

To me, this is the solution. In schools, there is no better place than in schools while they’re having their various learning experiences to be interacting and growing in the emotional human dimensions.

I see this happening.

In the last 6 years, we have met many teachers from the different schools. We have been in their homes, we have eaten with them, and we have heard their philosophy of education.

I am very impressed that this is a very peaceful, bright, supportive community that, wherever they build schools in the world…

In the last 6 years since we have encountered the Hizmet movement, we have been to many many many activities where they have invited people of various faiths together in dinners and other events where they could visit and get acquainted and share their different points of view.

I see that the Hizmet Movement is very strongly involved in helping people of different faiths to understand each other and talk through their differences, not that people leave being agreed on everything, but they learn to be agreeable.

They learn that other people of other faiths are good people, too, and want the same for their families that we want for our families and our faith.

To me, one of the key principles of Islam is generosity and compassion in dealing with people who are poverty-stricken, poor, people who have been through disasters… That is a key principle of the faith of a Muslim.

I think that the Hizmet Movement is a wonderful expression of those principles in Islam, where they reach out, as the Prophet Mohammed what have them, reach out around the world to people who are struggling in disasters and in problems, and who don’t have help.

And they are providing help to them as much as they can in any way, without any strings attached.

They are not there to convert; they are not there to gain power over people. They are there to help people, and to raise them up.

Down through history, different individuals, tyrants, or whatever you want to call them, have tried to use fear to strengthen their power.

We see Erdogan using a very benign, very supportive group such as the Hizmet Movement as a means of creating fear in the minds of people so that he can enhance his own power, and I don’t think it is going to work.

On a short-term basis he may have some success in this, but the Turkish people are smart enough to not be fooled by these types of lies. My statement to the people in Turkey is; find out what the Hizmet program is all about, read the philosophy of Fethullah Gulen, and realize where they are coming from, instead of listening to the politicians. Go to the source.

**Profile: Steve Gilliland is the director of Muslim Affairs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Southern California. He received a master’s degree from Brigham Young University in Family Counseling. Gilliland also holds a doctorate degree from Boston University in Counseling. He organized the LDS Institute Program for the students at Harvard, Radcliffe, MIT, and Boston University.

*Produced by Spectra Media exclusively for Irmak TV, Atlas of Thoughts (Fikir Atlasi) connects the scholars, politicians, jurists, religious figures, journalists, and academics reflecting on Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet Movement with the audience. Each episode features a person from a different segment of the society with diverse experiences regarding the Hizmet activities and its volunteers. If you are interested to hear about the Hizmet and Mr. Gulen from these people’s perspectives, do not miss this show!

Source: Fikir Atlasi (Episode 13), © Spectra Media, 11 April 2014, Friday

The smear campaign conducted by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government against Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There) -- a charity run by the Hizmet movement inspired by prominent Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen -- will affect the children, including victims of sexual assault, staying in the Women's Shelter of Tacloban City in the Philippines.

Thirty children have been living in the shelter since Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines in November of last year. Turkish charity Kimse Yok Mu was the first organization from Turkey to send aid to the Philippines, which was struggling to recover from the aftermath of the typhoon.

Deputy Director General Levent Eyüboğlu from Kimse Yok Mu told Today's Zaman that the shelter was reconstructed using funds provided by Kimse Yok Mu last year. Kimse Yok Mu volunteers and donors also provided food, clothes and other items to the victims in the shelter, Eyüboğlu added.

Eyüboğlu said there are children between the ages of 10 to 17 living in the shelter who were victims of sexual assault and rape after the typhoon hit and that Kimse Yok Mu also provides psychological support to these victims. One 12-year-old, whose name is being withheld to protect her identity, is a victim of rape and lives at the shelter with her 1-year-old baby who is the child of her attacker, Eyüboğlu explained.

Earlier in October, the AK Party government decided to cancel the charity's authority to collect donations for the remainder of this year. This determination was then followed by a decision to limit Kimse Yok Mu's right to collect donations by requiring permission from authorities in advance of fundraising efforts and blocking the organization's bank accounts.

The dramatic stories of the victims staying at the Women's Shelter of Tacloban City were in Kimse Yok Mu's petition for a stay of execution made to the Council of State. If Kimse Yok Mu cannot achieve any positive results from these formal objections, all funding and aid provided to the shelter will also be affected, Eyüboğlu said.

Eyüboğlu also noted that because of the smear campaign against Kimse Yok Mu by the AK Party government, charity activities in 113 countries, including the Philippines, are about to come to an end.

Published on Cihan, 04 November 2014, Tuesday

Orhan Kemal Cengiz

When this government was gaining strength, the military guardianship and the role of the MGK were weakened. And I was very happy for a while that we had put aside this “internal enemies” nonsense and instead we started to talk about crimes, suspects and their rights, and so on.

These days, however, we are unfortunately witnessing the resurrection of this ghost of “internal enemies” once again and the ghost is being called up by this government. The last MGK meeting took more then 10 hours, and the civilians and military personnel discussed whether or not the Gülen movement should be included in the “Red Book,” which we have not heard about for a long time.

The AKP does not want to get rid of “internal enemies” but rather it wants to monopolize the power to declare any group an internal enemy against whom a war may be declared using of all the powers of the state.

Excerpted from author's column on Today's Zaman, 04 November 2014, Tuesday

Sezer Morkoç (43), a chemistry teacher at a Turkish school in Australia, died of cancer on Monday and was buried in Adelaide.

Morkoç graduated from the chemistry department of Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ), one of the most prestigious universities in Turkey. He and his family moved to Australia in 2001. He had been teaching at Burc College, a private school founded by Turkish entrepreneurs in Adelaide.

His funeral, which was held at Al-Khalil Mosque in Adelaide, was attended by his parents, who came from Turkey; his wife and two children; his colleagues from school; and a number of students and parents from a variety of nationalities, including Arab, Afghan, Uzbek, Uyghur, Azeri, Lebanese, Ghanaian, Iraqi and Pakistani.

His father, Öztürk Morkoç, said his son had once taken him to the cemetery of Al-Khalil Mosque and told him he wanted to be buried there. “My grief is eased when I remember that my son was a good man and that he worked for the [faith-based] Hizmet movement," he said.

His colleagues at the funeral spoke about Morkoç, saying he was a dedicated employee of the school from the beginning of its service, even working in construction, bookkeeping and many other tasks for the school. One of his friends in the school, Burc College general coordinator Ahmet Yamakoğlu, stated at the funeral that he was a man who trusted deeply in God. “In the 13 months of cancer treatment he went through, he was always patient. He used to say: ‘What is cancer? It cannot stop a man who trusts in God.' He did not even stop working during treatment,” Yamakoğlu said.

Published on Today's Zaman, 05 November 2014, Wednesday

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), whose honorary chairman is Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, released a statement on its website on Wednesday strongly rejecting claims that the Hizmet movement formed a political party.

It said it is impossible for a civil society movement that is supported by millions of volunteers from various political views to form or make someone form a political party. “This claim, which is frequently and intentionally brought to the agenda, is just a big lie,” the GYV statement said.

Noting that volunteers of Hizmet respect all political movements that do not resort to violence or terror, which is against international laws, the GYV said the fact that the movement is respected in many countries of different religions and ethnicities is a result of it being a civil movement.

“The approach of this volunteer movement to politics is based on fundamental principles such as rule of law, democracy, plurality, universal human rights and freedoms, justice, equality, abiding by international laws and agreements, transparency of the state and accountability,” the statement said, adding that volunteers of Hizmet support any political party that follows policies compatible with these principles of their own free will and personal preference.

The Hizmet movement, whose members follow the principles of Gülen, is known for its cultural and educational activities in Turkey and around the world along with its efforts to promote intercultural and interfaith activities.

“It is very normal for an individual who was influenced by the community's [Hizmet] culture to become active in politics of his own will,” the statement continued, stressing that the principle of Hizmet not to form a political party should not interfere with an individual's choice to be active in politics.

Underlining that volunteers of Hizmet eagerly want Turkey to become a real democracy and have a transparent state of law, the statement said the movement will continue to stay within the framework of a civilian initiative and maintain its position in favor of democratic rights and freedoms.

Pro-government circles in Turkey frequently raise claims that Hizmet is forming a new party. These claims have been brought to the agenda again after an independent deputy who resigned from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) late last year formed a new political party.

Kütahya deputy İdris Bal established the Democratic Development Party (DGP) on Tuesday after filing a petition at the Interior Ministry. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday while promoting his party, Bal denied claims that he decided to form the party after having talks with Gülen. He said he would be honored if either Gülen or other opinion leaders in the country lend their support to his party.

Published on Today's Zaman, 05 November 2014, Wednesday

Journalists and Writers Foundation

It is impossible for a civil society movement that is supported by millions of volunteers from various political views to form or make someone form a political party. This claim, which is frequently and intentionally brought to the agenda, is just a big lie.

Volunteers of Hizmet respect all political movements that do not resort to violence or terror, which are against international laws, the fact that the movement is respected in many countries of different religions and ethnicities is a result of it being a civil movement.

The approach of this volunteer movement to politics is based on fundamental principles such as rule of law, democracy, plurality, universal human rights and freedoms, justice, equality, abiding by international laws and agreements, transparency of the state and accountability; volunteers of Hizmet support any political party that follows policies compatible with these principles of their own free will and personal preference.

The Hizmet movement, whose members follow the principles of Gülen, is known for its cultural and educational activities in Turkey and around the world along with its efforts to promote intercultural and interfaith activities.

It is very normal for an individual who was influenced by the community's [Hizmet] basin of culture to make active politics of his own will, the principle of Hizmet not to form a political party should not interfere with an individual's choice to be active in politics.

Volunteers of Hizmet eagerly want Turkey to become a real democracy and have a transparent state of law, the movement will continue to stay within the framework of being a civilian initiative and maintain its position in favor of democratic rights and freedoms.

Published on Journalists and Writers Foundation, 04 November 2014, Tuesday

Fikir Atlasi*, Episode 14 (Full text)

My name is, Patrick Drinan**, and I'm a Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus from the University of San Diego. I taught International Relations at the University of San Diego for many years.

The Hizmet Movement, I became aware of it about, five, six years ago, which is kind of strange because I'm a student of International Relations and a Russian-Soviet specialist, actually, and with Turkey in such close proximity to the Soviet Union and Russia, you'd think I would've heard more about it, but I did not, until approximately, five, six years ago.

The Pacifica Institute here in San Diego had a dinner in which they invited, interested people from the community in, and we learned more about the Hizmet Movement, and about the Pacifica Institute, and the dialog that was so important to the Hizmet Movement.

And both my wife and I were very impressed by the commitments of the Hizmet Movement to dialog and to friendship dinners.

The moderation of the group, you know, was not surprising to me, but I think it's surprising to many people, even fairly educated people in southern California, that they know, not that much, really, about Turkish society and the developments in it, over the last twenty or thirty years.

I've been learning more about Gülen‎ over the last several years, and I have done some reading of his sermons and have taken a look at the kind of commitments he has made building upon commitments of earlier thinkers in Turkey, committing himself to science and education and pro-EU membership, and just a solid message of moderation and cultural dialog and outreach, and the independence he has shown on many topics.

Just as we, my wife and I, went to Turkey in 2010, it was the time of the… it was right after the flotilla had gone down to Israel, and so, to find some of his skepticism about that exercise really told me something about his independence as a thinker and his attempt to have a genuine, moderate position, in a very pro-modern attitude in Turkish society.

I think Gülen‎ has certainly done the kind of outreach in terms of cultural dialog, and the outreach is not only to academics like myself, it's been to local political leaders, um, people from the religious communities, and the like, and, that kind of outreach, in terms of building understanding, I think is one of his greatest accomplishments.

And the fact that he has had such a sustained following in Turkey, and shows a commitment to a moral position in politics, in a moral position that is not extreme, but is based upon trying to do the best of combining tradition with modernity.

I think that is always a difficult, challenge in countries that are trying to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps and enter the globalized world.

And it seems to me that, Turkey, with the great assistance of Fethullah Gülen‎ has been a model for, for that to happen.

And I think we're learning just too late about that, in some ways.

We would hope that, that model would catch on. And we know that there's a whole variety of attitudes throughout the Islamic world; pro-democratic, pro-modern, sometimes more skeptical of modernity in the West. But we know that there are a whole variety of places in the Arab world, in the Turkish world, in Indonesia, that can nurture sensibilities that are very consistent with Gülen‎'s message.

I think, Muslims having dialog with non-Muslims is very, very important, although I know it's very difficult to do. Religious commitments can be very, very strong, and listening to the voices of other religions is not something that comes easy to any religious movement.

And so it takes some training and perspective in order for that to happen. My wife and I both participate in book clubs involving Muslims and non-Muslims, and trying to explore the connections of what prayer life is like in the Islamic world compared to, say, the Christian world, and it's… it takes a while…

There are many points of overlap, of course. In the Christian world, we have an attention to the Virgin Mary, and surprisingly, we found that within Islam, there's lots of attention to the Virgin Mary.

In fact, there's more in your basic writings than there is in the Christian Bible about the Virgin Mary.

So, I think it's gonna be a long, slow movement. It took decades in the Christian world for there to be good dialog between Catholics and other Christians, non-Catholic Christians, and so it's not something that can be achieved easily.

I think it'll take two or three generations of openness and sustained kind of listening and cultural interaction for that connection between Muslims and non-Muslims to really flourish.

But, what I think is that the Gülen Movement, has established a really, a fine base, and the fact that there is perhaps some conflict and debate about the wisdom of doing it, or some of the techniques that are used, I think is very, very healthy.

The Hizmet emphasis on education became very, very clear to us during our Pacifica Institute-sponsored cultural tour of Turkey in 2010.

A small group of us were brought to, not only colleges and universities and secondary schools, but into grade schools. In fact, one of the, best times we had in Turkey was, being at an elementary school sponsored by the Hizmet Gülen Movement, and seeing the volatility and the freshness and the excitement and curiosity of the students there. It seemed very, very healthy to us.

There is a joy there that sometimes we don't associate with other religions, in terms of their practice. We sometimes see the seriousness of some of the practices of the adults, in terms of what they do in prayer, and we don't necessarily pick up the more joyous side of what education can bring, in terms of, stimulating curiosity and laughter, and just the excitement of learning about the world.

And we saw that nurtured when we were in Turkey, and we certainly see it in the product of some of the Hizmet-sponsored schools when we meet engineers here in San Diego, at Qualcomm and other places, and to see the, the warmth, the excitement, and the curiosity that flow from their educational experiences and their professional obligations.

Current situation in Turkey where Erdoğan and his party, seem to be attacking the Hizmet Movement and Gülen and talking about the parallel state and the like, intrigue me. I'm a political scientist; I study politics, and even though I'm not an expert on Turkey, it seems to me that this is like the early difficulties in any democracy.

I think, Turkish politics will outgrow this. I think many of the changes in Turkey—in my view—are irreversible, and, in terms of the economic gains and per capita income gains and the like, are at a point where, further democratization is going to be welcomed.

And some of the internal battles that are going on in Turkey, I think you'll grow out of them, in my view. I think there could be even more difficult times ahead as the parliamentary politics of Turkey end up becoming a little bit more presidential. And so we look at—as a political scientist—at some of the possible changes of the constitution in terms of what a presidency offers, vis-à-vis a parliamentary prime minister-driven kind of situation, and there can be some awkwardness there.

There was awkwardness in France, in the Fifth Republic, in the 1960s, as they moved between a more prime minister-parliamentary system toward a more presidential system. And it took them about eight to ten years to kind of get that right.

And, I'm not sure if Turkey will go down a similar path to what France has done, in terms of, that kind of presidential authority. I'm not an expert in Turkish politics, but I will watch it from the outside with great curiosity and with great hope that the future of Turkey will be everything that people can imagine.

**Profile: Patrick Drinan is the Professor of Political Science at the University of San Diego. He completed his doctorate at the University of Virginia. Dr. Drinan served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Diego from 1989–2007. He has also served as a consultant on academic integrity at the university level.

A decision by the Turkish index Borsa İstanbul (BİST) to prevent the stock of the country's largest Islamic lender from being traded on the market between Aug. 14 and Sept. 15 will be re-evaluated, the country's capital markets watchdog said on Friday.

Main opposition party deputies asked Turkey's Capital Markets Board (SPK) to provide details of the BİST blockade on Bank Asya trading for a month during a Parliament session on Friday. Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Mahmut Tanal requested that SPK Chairman Vahdettin Ertaş provide a report on the closure of Bank Asya shares from trading during Friday's Parliament session, to which Ertaş said, “The SPK is working on it.” Turkish media reported last month that BİST's administration did not heed a warning by the SPK to act in line with the law with regard to banning Bank Asya's shares from trading. The daily Bugün ran a story in its Oct. 16 edition reporting on an application by BİST Chairman İbrahim Turhan to SPK, which demanded that BİST decisions on Bank Asya shares be exempted from relevant rules as stated in the SPK's laws. The pressure on Bank Asya intensified after open threats from the highest levels of the state.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has waged a dirty war against Bank Asya for its affiliations with the Hizmet movement, which has become Erdoğan's archenemy after two graft investigations were made public on Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 last year, which implicated some members of the government of the time as well as their children, even including Erdoğan's son Bilal.

Published on Today's Zaman, 07 November 2014, Friday

Turkey's UN-affiliated aid organization Kimse Yok Mu inaugurated a school in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on Friday that will provide education to the children of Syrian refugees.

In accordance with a protocol signed between the Arbil Governorate and the aid organization in November, the school, which has 12 classrooms and 1,000 square meters of space, was built in the region of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for refugees who fled Syria. The school will be administered under the Arbil Governorate, according to information obtained from the Ankara office of Kimse Yok Mu.

Kimse Yok Mu provided educational support for 1,150 Syrian children in Turkey during the 2013-14 academic year and continues to provide the students with school supplies.

The Turkish aid organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) jointly initiated a financial assistance project in January whereby TL 3.5 million ($1.5 million) was distributed to 2,900 Syrian families -- or some 17,000 people -- most of whom are women and children who fled the civil war in Syria and sought refuge in Turkey.

The total amount of financial aid provided by Kimse Yok Mu to Syrian refugees is currently around TL 67 million.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) March 2014 report says women and children have suffered most from the turmoil in Syria. According to the report, 5.5 million children were affected by the crisis and 10,000 children lost their lives. The report also says 8,000 children reached the borders without their parents, while 3 million children currently do not have access to education.

In October, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government decided to revoke the charity's permission to collect donations for the remainder of this year. This was then followed by another decision to limit Kimse Yok Mu's right to collect donations by requiring permission from authorities in advance of fundraising efforts and blocking the organization's bank accounts.

Despite the latest step in the Turkish government's crackdown on Kimse Yok Mu, in which two banks blocked the organization's accounts, administrators for the charity have said they are still able to collect money through their other accounts.

Published on Cihan, 07 November 2014, Friday

The lawyer of the Turkish Islamic scholar whose teachings are the inspiration behind the Hizmet movement, Fethullah Gülen, has denied reports in the media that Gülen or the Hizmet movement have founded or been involved in the formation of a recently established political party.

In a written statement issued on Friday, Gülen's lawyer Nurullah Albayrak said: “My client has nothing to do with the establishment of any party.”

Albayrak addressed attempts by some media outlets to establish a connection between Gülen and a political party established this week by a former ruling party deputy. “As my client has repeatedly asserted, it is out of the question that he proposed or guided, in a public or covert way, the establishment of any party. He has not spoken with anyone [or] expressed to anybody any positive or negative opinion on the issue,” Albayrak said.

The Hizmet movement was accused by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of taking part in a plot against the government following graft probes that went public in December of last year. Hizmet is a social movement known for its cultural and educational activities around the world.

Pro-government circles in Turkey frequently raise claims that the Hizmet movement is forming a new party. The claim was recently brought to the agenda again after İdris Bal, an independent deputy who resigned from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) late last year, recently formed a new political party.

Albayrak underlined in his statement that the reports and columns in the media cannot be considered to be written in good faith as they are attempts to create the false perception that Gülen and the Hizmet movement are behind Bal's party, especially considering the fact that this claim has been repeatedly denied by Gülen.

“My client has repeatedly announced to the public that he remains maintains at an equal distance from all political parties,” the statement said.

Underlining that Gülen chooses to offer support to democracy and human rights rather than to political parties, the statement added: “He definitely has no intention, neither today nor tomorrow, of launching, supporting or guiding a political party.”

Bal established the Democratic Development Party (DGP) on Tuesday after filing a petition at the Interior Ministry. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday to promote his party, Bal denied claims that he decided to form the party after speaking with Gülen. He said he would be honored if either Gülen or other opinion leaders in the country lend their support to his party.

Published on Today's Zaman, 07 November 2014, Friday

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Abdullah Bozkurt

Turkey's political Islamists, armed with abusive government powers, are deliberately and maliciously trying to strangle the country's leading private charity group, Kimse Yok Mu, in order to dismantle an important barrier in front of the awkward social engineering project of turning this moderate Muslim nation into a bastion for ideological zealots.

Islamists who exploit the religious sensitivities of the people also want to eliminate the competition to their favored charity groups and government-sponsored programs that were primarily designed to produce political support for Islamists rather than lifting them out of poverty. The goal is to create dependence upon their social services so that Islamists will perpetuate their power and influence among these communities. For them, the charity work is simply a patronage system to win loyalty and votes.

As such, Kimse Yok Mu, as an organization that promotes non-political, neutral social and charitable works, represents a serious challenge to the ambitions of political Islamists to harvest more power. The agency is undercutting political Islamists' efforts that could diminish political support for them.

At the personal and corporate level, the stalled corruption investigations of last year have exposed how pro-government charitable organizations have been greasing the wheels of some private companies and fattening the wallets of senior officials. In exchange for large sums of donations to foundations affiliated with political Islamists, controversial foreign nationals as well as Turkish citizens were able to curry favor with the government.

This explains why political Islamists would rather work with agencies that run the risk of either inadvertent or deliberate involvement with shady and controversial organizations in Turkey and abroad. Kimse Yok Mu, a perfectly legitimate charity, never signed on to dubious projects that could have cast a shadow on its reputation.

The integrity and credibility of the organization is very important to the administrators of the agency, who place special emphasis on transparency and accountability in its governance structure. The organization has been trying to work within the global network by implementing international standards and best practices. The fact that it is the only aid organization in Turkey that holds UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) special consultative status tells the tale.

The organization developed internationally recognized relief programs in partnership with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2013 and received the Outstanding Service Award in 2013 from the Turkish Parliament controlled by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). It has also received numerous citations from authorities in the 113 countries it has been active in for years. The agency has developed a capacity to deliver emergency relief in disaster zones, as well as to rebuild infrastructure in communities, thereby providing long-term assistance, which includes the construction of homes, hospitals, schools and health facilities.

By attacking Kimse Yok Mu, political Islamists hope to generate fear through much of the Turkish charitable sector and perhaps want to create a pretext to take over this popular, well-funded aid group with its wide-ranging charity and social networks. The government goes after the group with blatant abuse of executive powers in registration, monitoring and investigation of a non-profit organization. Despite the fact that the agency was cleared twice this year with rigorous and intensive screening and auditing by government inspectors as part of a politically targeted audit, the government nevertheless decided to limit and suspend on some occasions Kimse Yok Mu's permits to raise, hold and use funds in charitable work.

The organization filed a lawsuit in an administrative court to challenge the government's decision to limit the agency's activities, but sorting out legal matters will take time to finalize. In the meantime, the attacks on the aid group have disrupted Kimse Yok Mu's charitable and humanitarian work in many parts of the world, leaving a large vacuum in services. The fact that some of their accounts were frozen by a government decision without judicial review thwarted the organization from completing the obligations and commitments it has been fulfilling so far without a glitch.

The punitive actions by the government have caused widespread resentment among Turks. In fact, the contributions to the aid agency have doubled this year from earlier levels. Despite the smear campaign waged by the pro-government media to discredit the agency and sow seeds of doubt about it, Kimse Yok Mu does not seem to have scaled back its operations or suspended activities. They scramble to find ways to fulfill their commitments and even ask their volunteers to donate their contributions directly to the charity work in progress on the ground.

Kimse Yok Mu was established by volunteers in Turkey and is inspired by well-respected Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who has preached the need for Muslims to set up alternative social networks to counter malicious ones in order to prevent the abuse of charitable work and radicalizing vulnerable populations through the provision of legitimate social services. Therefore, Kimse Yok Mu has emerged as a relief organization that offers Muslims a reliable and safe mechanism to channel their donations to communities in need especially in high security risk areas.

The reason why Kimse Yok Mu is very popular among well over 100 host countries it operates in is that it does not challenge authority but rather tries to work with the government. It does not harbor an ulterior motive but merely wants to deliver humanitarian aid to those in need and make a difference in their lives. Foreign governments welcome apolitical charity groups such as Kimse Yok Mu that provide services to disadvantaged groups because such endeavors contribute to the host government's efforts to ensure social and political stability.

That was the main reason why Kimse Yok Mu declined to participate to the Mavi Marmara humanitarian flotilla in 2010; there was no agreement in advance with the authorities over aid to Gaza. The flotilla, led by activists, resulted in the killing of eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American in international waters in a raid by Israel soldiers who wanted to stop the Turkish ship en route to Gaza in defiance of the illegal blockade. Without making much noise, Kimse Yok Mu has been delivering humanitarian and development assistance to Gaza, Ramallah and other parts of Palestine for years in cooperation with its neighbors' approvals such as Egypt and Israel.

The unjustified war against the largest charity group in Turkey is part of the personal vendetta campaign of Turkey's chief political Islamist, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, against Gülen, whom he failed to enlist in the Islamists' campaign to abuse religion for political campaigns. Kimse Yok Mu represents a larger pattern of harassment, threats and intimidation against members of Hizmet, a social movement with a focus on science education, moderation and intercultural dialogue. Erdoğan hopes to keep Hizmet in check by exerting undue pressure on all institutions and people seen to be affiliated with Hizmet.

That is the difference between what Gülen represents and what Erdoğan has delivered in Turkey. The former engages in a democratic process, believes in transparency and accountability, supports pluralism, promotes interfaith and intercultural dialogue, emphasizes science and moral education, rejects corruption and cronyism and respects the rights of others. The latter represents the complete opposite because he likely sees the democratic process as merely a vehicle to power and will not hesitate to violate the rights of others when full power is obtained.

What is more, political Islamists may not even believe the alternate system of governance and will do anything and everything to cling on to power.

Published on Today's Zaman, 07 November 2014, Friday

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