Written by Turkish Daily News. Posted in News.

From The Columns

From a June 20 article by Radikal's Ismet Berkan: In the course of the "reactionaryism" controversy, Fethullah Gülen's name has come up frequently. But no steps have been taken against him.

By now the scrutiny is over, adequate information has been gathered and the button has been pushed for the Fethullah operation according to what I heard from certain high level sources on June 19. Gülen, currently, in the United States, may soon be on Interpol's list of most wanted men.

According to these sources, the half-baked investigation which the DGM has conducted until now, will be accelerated. New "bombshells" will be leaked to the media. Obviously the video cassettes were only the beginning, and this will be a "serial."

So the Military was right

From a June 20 article by Hurriyet's Sedat Ergin: Over the past two years the "diagnosis" to be made in the case of Fethullah Gülen has caused a lot of uneasiness at the peaks of the state. This problem was voiced at more than one meeting of the National Security Council (MGK).

According to the military, Gülen's goal was to create a state system which would take religious rules as its reference point in legal matters. Therefore, Gülen and his community, should be evaluated in a "reactionary [the term authorities use when referring to fundamentalism or political Islam] threat" perspective. That "threat" was voiced at a MGK meeting by a person none other than Gen. Huseyin KIvrIkoğlu, the current chief of the General Staff.

Curiously, the person who had opposed Gen. KIvrIkoğlu on the Gülen issue was democratic Left Party (DSP) leader and Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit who was at that time deputy prime minister. Ecevit opposed Gülen's being included in the "reactionary threat."

On the night of June 18, ATV channel aired footage in which Gülen himself was disclosing "frankly" his views. It is all too clear who has been right all along in this controversy. The speech (which Gülen apparently made to his leading followers, instructing them on the tactics to be used) was a sobering one indeed.

The "other vital institution" to which Gülen referred in that speech is obviously the Turkish Armed Forces. In fact, many of the officers expelled from the army have been FethullahcIs.

He is obviously the author of a "grand strategy" aimed at deceiving the "other side" with certain tactics in the course of a drive aimed at "conquering" the state and "attracting to his own side the power that resides in the constitutional establishments." 06.21.1999

Created on 14 September 2001.