All This Fight About Fethullah Gülen
Those who launched the campaign to "preserve the secularist system" and thus toppled the Erbakan government now seem to be staging yet another episode of their campaign by targeting Gülen and people who are associated with him.
We are watching the same ugly game unfold before our very eyes. First they distribute a series of video recordings that may even be doctored, which is full of scandalous revelations. The recordings go to select TV stations which effectively use them for a smear campaign. Then the newspapers affiliated with these TV stations carry on the good work and finish off the victims.
On the surface the game is directed against Gülen and the huge business empire indirectly affiliated with him. It is just like the massive business empire that Professor Ihsan Dogramaci has created in Ankara.
Dogramaci does not even have a house to live in. Even his current residence is owned by a foundation which supports his huge educational effort.
Dogramaci founded Hacettepe University and then founded the huge private Bilkent University. He finances this ambitious educational project through the massive holding companies like Tepe, which is active in many sectors, led by construction. All the money that is amassed by the holding companies goes to finance Bilkent. We know well that Dogramaci has to subsidize 60 percent of the expenses of all the students, even those who pay large tuition fees.
So Fethullah Gülen has also set up a business empire which he does not directly own. The empire generates money, and several primary and high schools are built both at home and abroad. All these schools are closely supervised by the Ministry of Education and thus have never been centers of anti-secularist activity. If people challenge this statement, then we would like to point out that Hikmet Ulugbay, who is one of the leading pro-secularists of Turkey, was the education minister during the anti-religious drive at the ministry and would never have allowed such things to happen at Gülen's schools.
So through the business empire Gülen's schools have been effectively financed. Schools across the former Soviet empire have been set up and are still functioning with success as a cultural bridge between Turkey and those countries. If any of these schools were involved in anti-secularist activities the governments of those countries who we know are very sensitive to religious activism would have halted their activities long ago.
There are forces within the state which are trying to use Gülen for their own power struggle. Those who started the crusade against Erbakan now are testing their strength against Gülen, who is not only a moderate preacher but also a man who has won friends in high places. They want to show everyone that they can move mountains and thus that they call the cards in Turkey. Let us hope all this blows over with minimum damage to Turkey after the August reshuffling period ends.
TURKISH DAILY NEWS
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