"Those Who Revile Gülen Ruined..." or is it Really So?

A certain group in the media uses every single opportunity to launch a remorseless campaign of denigration against Fethullah Gülen. The dailies Hürriyet, Milliyet and Vatan, which very recently and simultaneously posted a news article on their Web sites produced by Akşam without even changing the headline, made a display of immoral and illegal zeal, totally at odds with the principles of journalism.

The headline was "Those who revile Gülen ruined." They enumerate their "arguments" as follows: Former Chief Prosecutor of the State Security Court (DGM) Nuh Mete Yüksel, who had filed a lawsuit against Gülen, was brought to public notice with pictures showing him during a wild party with Russian prostitutes. Writer Ergün Poyraz, who had filed a complaint against Gülen, was interrogated in connection with hand grenades found in a house in the Ümraniye district of İstanbul and was eventually jailed. Prosecutor Salim Demirci from the Ankara 11th High Criminal Court, appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeals with the demand that Gülen's acquittal be overturned. A cassette where he hurls very heavy swear words at the prime minister has been put on YouTube. Some members of the police department who were found to have wiretapped Gülen have been tried.

Well, they have apparently ruined themselves; nobody ruined them. What do the irresponsible editors-in-chief of these papers want to say? "Gülen has immense influence and power. He gets his men to wiretap those against him…" So where is your evidence? I mean, who was wiretapped upon Gülen's orders and who did the wiretapping? Do you have any documentation? No. Let the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), the police department's bureau of intelligence, military intelligence and gendarmerie intelligence find the wiretappers. Have you appealed to any of these institutions? Have you demanded any documentation? Are there any documents or a single nugget of truth you have discovered yourselves? No. What you do is outright wrong in terms of professional ethics. It is execution without trial. You are trying to leave Mr. Gülen under suspicion by following your usual strategy of "Throw mud, if it doesn't stick, it will leave a mark."

Was it not you who, when questioned "Why are you not publishing anything on the Ergenekon terrorist organization?" unashamedly said, "We respect the law; we cannot write anything about a matter that is being dealt with by a court"? Is it not you who is hypocritically defending the supremacy of the law? Your claim that Gülen orders his men to wiretap those who denigrate him is totally unsubstantiated, and it has not even been referred to a court of law. It is pure gossip. With what sort of conscience and personality are you able to write such a headline? How insincere of you! What a ruthless double standard! How hypocritical! What a terrible case of shamelessness! How unfair! Why are they plaguing a person who has many health problems and who leads a life in seclusion to escape the public eye?

I have tried to provide an answer to this question in my columns maybe a hundred times. Mr. Gülen is a man of action and ideas that target lifting our country in the international race with an understanding based on the supremacy of law and justice and by claiming our own essential values, reading the modern age properly and gathering around universal human values. There are millions who love and respect him. He defends peace and conciliation over clashes. More than 500 schools in over 100 countries have been opened upon his advice. Turkish is becoming a world language in a way never before seen in history. International Turkish Olympiads are held. Bridges of peace are being established for universal dialogue instead of fighting, and the human family's young generations are growing up with tolerance and reciprocal love and respect.

Such a man of love loved by millions can disconcert only the enemies of what is good and beautiful and those who see Turkey as their own property and boast of this, saying: "We are permanent and you are temporary. Who can do anything in this country without consulting us?"

And when it comes to the claim that those who revile him are "ruined," that those who attack Gülen are hurt, this upsets and breaks the hearts of the millions who selflessly serve this country. Those who tyrannized the oppressed have suffered throughout history.

Do not provoke the curse of the oppressed.