What's Really Behind Turkey's Coup Arrests?

Gulen movement: Turkey's third power, INTERNATIONAL

http://www.janes.com/articles/Janes-Islamic-Affairs-Analyst-2009/Gulen-movement-Turkey-s-third-power.html

Turkey's Fethullah Gulen Community (FGC), also known as the Gulen movement after its founder and leader Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Muslim preacher, often escapes scholarly attention. Yet no analysis of Turkey is complete without due attention paid to the FGC; a highly co-ordinated and centralised movement with many well-positioned followers, known as Gulenists. Some Turks deridingly refer to the movement as 'F-type' or 'Fethullahci' (followers of Fethullah).
According to FGC members, the organisation controls millions of dollars and has many organisations, including a network of high schools across the world that serve as signpost FGC institutions. In addition, the FGC owns universities, banks, non-governmental organisations and television networks in Turkey, as well as other countries. What is more, the FGC appears to have influence over the Turkish National Police (Emniyet), including the police's powerful domestic intelligence wing. The FGC's political power renders it a taboo topic in Turkey where many people shy away from discussing the group publicly. The Turks have a polarised view of Gulen: some see him as a political leader such as Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, while others view him as the face of modern, non-violent, even reformed Islam. This and the FGC's political power makes the organisation worthy of closer scrutiny in an effort to map out its structure, global reach, message, political influence and future in Turkey.

Compilation of Fethullah Gulen's videos--
On June 19, 1999, the ATV television channel broadcast two video cassettes of Gülen apparently telling a closed meeting of his supporters to infiltrate the machinery state and bide their time until they were strong enough to implement their agenda. The transcripts of the cassettes were published in Hürriyet, June 20, 1999.

Videos are in Turkish only.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pieYV8C60RQ&feature=related

“My followers should be very quiet and discreet until we are very close to have full authority over every single constitutional institution in Turkey--any step before full control is a step too early.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Rl_v9QCEM&feature=related

“The basis of my teachings and philosophies teaches patience anyway. We need to show the patience of a spider that makes a web and then patiently awaits for its victim to fall in the web. ”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjTSbMjXy6c&feature=related

“No matter where you look in the world...every crime, every misery, every catastrophe has Vatican, Christian Missionaries etc. They are the source of all evil.”

Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2009, pp. 55-66
http://www.meforum.org/2045/fethullah-gulens-grand-ambition
Gülen is not fighting for more individual freedoms but to free Islam from the confines of the mosque and the private domain of individuals and to bring it to the public arena, to govern every aspect of life in the country.
What Turkey's Islamists really want is to remove the founding principles of the Turkish Republic. So long as U.S. and Western officials fail to recognize that Gülen's rhetoric of tolerance is only skin-deep, they may be setting the stage for a dialogue, albeit not of religious tolerance, but rather to find an answer to the question, "Who lost Turkey?"

In an interview with Reva Bhalla, director of analysis for Stratfor, Cumhuriyet Journalist Poyrazlar discusses the involvement of the Islamic Gülen movement in the Ergenekon allegations. Poyrazlar depicts the role of Islamist factions and their power plays in current Turkish political developments.

http://en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=116194

Check this out people! This is a wonderful piece!

Gareth H. Jenkins
http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/docs/silkroadpapers/0908Ergenekon.pdf

Gulen Movement is the driver behind Ergenekon investigation.

Thank you soner for this great piece. It is really eye opening. It is so terrible how these people are using religion as a tool to take over turkey. people think they are all about cultural understanding and sharing and acceptance but they actually advocate the opposite things. This fetullah guy actually told in one of his speeches that Vatican was the mother of all evil and scum and was responsible for blood being shed everywhere. Can you believe this guy and the retarded people who follow him?!?!?!?

This piece shows really well how a peaceful religion like Islam is being taken advantage of by people who call themselves philosophers and scholars. Show one NEW THING that Gulen came up with? How can he be a philosopher?

Islam is not a religion to force people to do anything. Gulen movement has been anti-American, anti-Christian and anti-Semitic throughout its entire existence. And now they pretend to teach dialogue? Gulen ran away from Turkey once he realized he was going to be jailed again for undermining the secular nature of Turkish government. For those who don't know-- he was jailed before in Turkey.

Western world-- open your eyes and see the danger that you are feeding. The true allies of the West in Turkey are the secularistz, not the Islamists-pretending-to-like Western life style.

Thank you Soner Cagaptay!

AKP FORMING CLOSER LINKS WITH THE GULEN MOVEMENT
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 4 Issue: 217
November 20, 2007 10:00 PM Age: 2 yrs
By: Gareth Jenkins

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=33187

Although Gulen has actively encouraged interfaith dialogue and been vigorous in his condemnation of the use of violence, there is also no doubt that his followers have an ideological agenda. The Gulen movement is socially very conservative and almost completely dominated by men.

thanks soner, this is a great article. not many people know about the true face of the gulen movement.

Mr. Cagatay may seem like a reliable source himself but apparently his sources aren't. And it discredits him.

He does not prove any of his statements which are basically re-writing what some of the media in Turkey has been arguing. If Mr. Gulen was that powerful, why would he live in exile in USA ? If what Mr. Cagatay writes is correct, then why Mr. Gulen was found "not guilty" by the top court of Turkish Republic not only once, but 3 times each with a different court, for those allegations ?

These arguments which say the police force, national intelligence etc are under influence of the Gulen Movement are insults to both Mr. Gulen and those institutions. Why would a person whose only ambition is to be a good muslim would be interested in such "impossible" missions? If an ordinary imam of a mosque in Turkey is able to take the police force and the intelligence agency under his rule, what kind of a police force would that be ? These are pure conspiracy theories and it is sad to realise that Mr. Cagatay takes those conspiracy theories seriously. The majority of the Turkish public proves these by still voting for AK Party government and asking for a reform in turkish jurisdiction system

There is a struggle between the supporters of status quo versus the liberal people who wants democracy, freedom of speech. And it is true that Mr. Gulen and his followers are in the "democracy" side of this struggle. But they are not alone, they have over half the Turkish public with them. We have seen this battle in many places of the world and everybody knows who is going to win.

I believe the US Foreign policy should be overhauled. The old doctrine failed in these modern days. It is no longer viable to serve the USA interest.

As US citizen I think the US Governments should change the old policy in favor of new policy. I proposed in the media that our country should adopt the policy of building few “Economic Union” around the World similar to EU of Europe to serve the international communities.

This proposal will save our economy and help stabilize Middle East, Asia, Africa, South and Central America.

This Imam sounds like a religious fascist. How is that objectively worse than the military fascists his movement is sidelining? Sounds like Turkey merely replaced the goosestepping goons of the barracks for a bunch of prosthelitizing goons from the Madrassah.

Once again we see Mr. Cagaptay spewing out his Turkish nationalist rhetoric in Western news outlets. Always painting a pretty picture of the Turkish regime and putting forward the idea that the "Islamist" AKP are simply trying to radicalize the state. Sonar fails to mention the reforms that the "Islamists" are putting forward in the Kurdish front, their pushing forward of foreign policy changes and their opening of the rules on the hijab in schools.

This article should not be bashing the party that is attempting to bring forward legislation to reform the Turkish system towards democracy and maybe eventually to join the EU. Sonar needs to focus on the years of oppression faced by the Turkish military, their iron fisted power over the entire system and how they used it to put forward their agendas. In recent years we are actually seeing a shift of power from the military to a party that was brought to power by democratic vote and properly represents Turkey. This shift is very dangerous for the AKP when the military still have a lot of power within Turkey. We should be celebrating the fact that another country in the 21st century is moving towards a democratic state. Whereas in the past the political system was more a pseudo-political system controlled by the men of the military.

I'm sick of seeing Mr. Cagaptay writing these articles in huge publications without a proper counter argument. The BBC published an article the other day that gives a better idea of the situation in Turkey, and its' militaries' past.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8534041.stm

"We should be celebrating the fact that another country in the 21st century is moving towards a democratic state."

We should be, except that moving towards democracy is not Mr. Gulen's goal. What he wants is a modern Islamic state, something like Mr. Alli Allawi.
A laudable goal in some ways, but the two concepts - Islamic and Modern,
are in fact, mutually exclusive - despite the best efforts of Muhammed Abduh, Sayyid Ahmed, Tariq Ramadan, etc..

Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of cold war, Turkey’s geopolitical location makes it a key variable (either active or passive) in almost every political discussion related to the area. In addition, Turkey presents an interesting case due to its Muslim identity and Ottoman heritage. These complex issues make it very hard even for Turks to agree on tough dilemmas such as national identity, foreign policy, place of religion in society, relationships with the neighbors -especially in the West-, etc. When viewed from the West however, the puzzle becomes almost impossible to solve due to above-mentioned factors as well as the media bias/paranoia covering anything related to the Muslim world in general.

Having lived in the US for 15 years, I personally experienced frustration very often while trying to explain to my friends in the West what is really going on in the region. Moreover, writings such as Mr. Cagaptay’s, which seem to follow an aggressive domestic political agenda (or reaction in this case), only blurs the waters for our friends in the West. After this long backdrop, I would like to comment on his argument by referring to his exact statements:

“For the last several decades, the Turkish military was untouchable; no one dared to criticize the military or its top generals, lest they risk getting burned.”
This statement alone should be enough to understand that Turkey’s democracy has a long way to cover until it reaches a maturity which was the ultimate target of the forces (including Kemal Ataturk) which turned the face of the nation to the West for its values and lifestyle. Those interested should research Ataturk’s own views on the role of the military.

“When I asked a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey for his views on the news, he thought the scenario was ridiculous.”If the Turkish military was going to do a coup, they would not be writing a 5,000-page memo about it," he stated.”
I don’t know where to begin to react to this “ridiculous” reference which puts an American diplomat in a very awkward position from which the US government would abstain very carefully. Mr. Cagaptay seems to forget the tragic results of the past military coups in Turkey.

“The force behind this dramatic change is the Fethullah Glen Movement (FGH), an ultraconservative political faction that backs the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).”
I believe Mr. Cagaptay is well aware of the meaning of ultraconservative. All he needs is to refer is a short research about this movement and what it has been doing around the globe. Promoting interfaith and intercultural dialogue, establishing schools in well-over 100 countries, abstaining from politics throughout, etc.; these are not the typical traits of an ultraconservative Islamist movement with a hidden agenda; unless Mr. Cagaptay feeds from or is trying to feed into a paranoia which has been used as a pretext for decades-long human rights abuses in Turkey against religious people –especially in the armed forces-, and for political gain. Not one incident of violence has been linked to any of the followers or supporters of this movement, and we are talking about millions of people here. In addition, evidence against the actions of these armed forces officials have been so overwhelming that even the Military prosecutors admitted that they are not simple brain-storming exercises, but actually plans to destabilize the country and justify a military coup.

Publicly available documents, and the arguments of the prosecutors (thanks to the reforms in the process of Turkey’s EU membership bid) convinced millions of people in Turkey that it is not the military itself but a group of politically motivated top officials who are trying to provoke the country into a chaos. Mr. Cagaptay, and anyone who fails to see the big picture here, must come up with an explanation for the killings of thousands in the southeast region in the name of fighting Kurdish separatists, assassinations of Ugur Mumcu, Catholic Father Santoro, journalist Hrant Dink and many more, bombings in Umut Bookstore and many other cities, slayings in Malatya, plans to stage attacks on its own citizens, ammunition and explosive stacks hidden all over the country, and more, and more, and more. The mounting evidence is so overwhelming, one wonders why even bother discussing the source of the alleged “campaign”. Isn’t it time to sort out who is behind these heinous crimes and bring them to justice? Not one argument agisnt the evidence, but all the rhetoric about Islamist paranoia, only to bring back the ghosts from the past and blur the waters one more time to protect the old ways, which are perfectly reflected in Mr. Cagaptay’s opening statement: to keep the military untouchable, what a modern view on democracy!

Diverting public attention from the real issue is probably one of the oldest tricks in the books of the policy makers. Specific to Turkey, putting Mr. Gulen on the spotlight to escape the public anger or prosecution (in this case we are talking about thousands of killings and wrong imprisonments) is nothing new, and it has always come out empty-handed. I would like to turn the table and ask the supporters of this fraction in the armed forces, who are convinced that the only way to rule is the military rule in Turkey, and who feed from chaos, paranoia, polarization of the nation on ethnic or religious lines, killings, provocations, etc.: Who is behind this campaign trying to block the prosecution of suspects who are facing mounting evidence in the hands of independent prosecutors, and judicial system? Isn’t it the democratic and modern way -which was envisioned by the founders of our republic- to let the courts sort out these issues and reach a verdict? If you have evidence against anybody, including Mr. Fethullah Gulen, why aren’t you coming forward and let the justice prevail? By the way, Mr. Gulen has been prosecuted and found innocent several times by independent courts in Turkey.

Finally, Turkey lost decades and generations in this infighting. It is time for this unique Muslim democracy to face its ghosts from the past and let justice take over. I hope the public attention –both domestically and abroad- will focus on the real issues and evidence, and no criminal will escape the justice system this time.

First of all, I should express how disappointed I am to see that biased article in a reputable magazine like FP. It is more shocking to see the first few sentences accusing a public character heavily without any base. Surprisingly, the same character was placed as the first public intellectual by the readers of the same magazine in June 16th, 2008.
I am not going over all the lacks in the writing like how on earth he can link Turkish police to the Gulen movement. I just would like to say that terror is as undesirable and bad in Turkey as it is in US. The mentioned 5000-page memo contains plans of attacks to many people including minorities and children. How would anyone expect such plans to be left without investigation?
On top of all, Gulen movement is not an obscure movement and anybody can easily find out about it to get a better understanding. There are hundreds of academic studies and news reports on it. Schools and other organizations inspired by the movement are operating, and surely being scrutinized for over a decade in many countries with no such accusations. It is all too clear to me that this piece of writing lacks objectivity, intellectual background, and credibility. So, anybody, even the ones only slightly informed about the issue, can easily draw the conclusion that the writer’s purpose is to misinform the readers without and concrete base.

I agree with other comments in that we should congratulate the author. He deserves a golden prize for writing fiction in a politics journal. He is so convincing at times, one might even believe him if they don't read the news in Turkey. Here's why I find Cagaptay's article as misleading, falsifying and truth-twisting:

First of all, let me begin with the title of the article on the homepage: "The Islamist Goons Behind Turkey's Coup Crackdown" This was an instant shock and statement of purpose to me. You don't even need to read the rest of the article. It is clear from that point to me why Cagaptay failed to be a respectable academic, and turned to journalism. No objectivity, pure prejudice.

One of Cagaptay favorite resorts is the case of the deceased Turkan Saylan, who was interrogated on charges of cooperating with the Ergenekon scheme. Cagaptay still tries to make us believe that Saylan was an angel devoted to educating under-privileged Turkish youth, even sacrificing her life for that cause. However, if you just read the "documents" (i.e. those things that are lacking in Cagaptay's arguments), you can see how she diverted her influence to supply human and material resources for the PKK terrorist organization. I'm sure Cagaptay has seen this news, but wouldn't want to acknowlege the sheer facts: http://www.porttakal.com/haber-turkan-saylan-yetistirdi-pkk-istihdam-etti-89595.html

Cagaptay's argument that the judiciary and the police have illegally recorded the phone calls of certain people does not even deserve a laugh, for the attorneys provide all the documents regarding legal permissions to wiretap suspicious people among the files of the lawsuit, which consist of thousands of pages by the way. Even Gareth Jenkins has read these documents, I think it's a shame that Cagaptay's hasn't had the time to take a look at them. Cagaptay wants us to believe again, but without any proof, evidence, verifying document. Caveat again!

Cagaptay argues that "Turkey has replaced one "untouchable" organization for another, more dangerous, one." I don't even want to debate his point, which is a mere fantasy to even the careless eye. What I want to emphasize here is the great pains he takes to downplay the military threat over Turkey's democracy and political life. Just observe that he offers no explanation to his arguments, and just look under the lines to decipher his thinking!

For those who have followed Soner Cagaptay et. al. (e.g. Zeyno Baran, Daniel Pipes (who also failed in academics; and I can hear some people call me anti-semite because I disapproved Pipes, ok, you're sooo intelligent. If you write Pipes without "His Holiness", then you're anti-semitic..) ), it is not difficult to understand that Cagaptay is a party in this conflict and struggle for democracy, and he is not on the side of democracy and freedom. All his articles I've read so far bear huge marks of partisanship, anti-AKP and anti-Gulen lines. I wouldn't blame anybody for being anti-AKP or anti-Gulen, this is a fair and justified position. But Cagaptay, please don't ignore the facts just because you want to see it that way, and don't inject us with your stories.

To me, one of the climax points of his article comes when he says: "Although the chief of staff said the documents were doctored, they were recently used as evidence, with the support of anonymous witnesses, to arrest serving generals and admirals." Oh my God, this is beyond words. Where should I begin? First of all, the chief of staff at first dismissed all the evidence as doctored, and called a coup document "a piece of sheet" and called the LAW weapon "a tube." I don't want to linger on how funny and ridiculous were these remarks, and what sort of a shame they were for the army he represented. But the problem is, it doesn't matter what the chief of staff calls the matter, the coronary reports verifed that all the documents were real, and none of them were doctored. Soner KNOWS THIS way better than any of us, so WHY LIE, Soner? Why go to there to just persuade the readers? Why don't you just stop wen YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TRUE TO SAY?
And secondly, another recent news Soner wouldn't want us to learn: The MILITARY ATTORNEY JUST CONFIRMED that the Sledgehammer operation was not a military war-games exercise, but in fact a COUP D'ETAT! So, why don't you write another piece on that, Mr. Cagaptay? I can't wait to hear your comments on the Sledgehammer coup attempt, that you try to denigrate as some allegation or doctoring of documents, or a PhotoShop wonder..

And one last thing I cannot miss.. Cagaptay wants us to believe that the FGH was behind Erbakan's party.. Ok. Even Erbakan wanted this to be true at that time, but it wasn't. Go pick up the phone, ask any Erbakan symphatizer. This is utter fantasy, perfect lie. Nothing more. This is the point I can't write anymore. God bless you.

I'm tired of seeing this kind of attacks to Mr. Gulen. I wish that Mr. Cagaptay would have a chance to meet with Mr. Gulen to know him. It looks like Mr. Cagaptay doesn't have the ability to get to know someone without meeting him :).

I say one sided because there are many accusations without any proof. Yet, I don't need to prove that those accusations do not exist since it is almost impossible to prove them if they do not exist.

On the other hand, I understand his attacks since Mr. Gulen was very successful in promoting his ideas (dialog, understanding, respect in between all cultures, religious groups and communities) which made Mr. Cagaptay and all the other groups very jealous. They always had doubts about Fethullah Gulen's mission in promoting dialog, believed that he has an agenda. Nobody can prove someone has an agenda inside his heart and also nobody can hide his agenda lifelong. If you want to know someone, you should look at his past records, what he has done so far. I hope you don't expect a sudden change from a 72 year-old man after devoting his life to peace in the world. I can show you millions of proofs for that manner.

Fethullah Gulen is an opinion leader, writer, preacher, religious leader, intellectual (he was elected as #1 intellectual by Foreign Policy magazine), scholar. He is not the president of any organization in the world. He even doesn't have any property anywhere in the world.

He promoted to start schools, different organizations not only in Turkey but in the world, for what? To convert Turkey into an Islamic State? University Scholars in the world keep organizing conferences to promote his ideas, in which you can find many non-Turkish scholars. Do you think they are stupid? You can deceive one man, 100 men maybe but how can you deceive thousands and thousand of people in the world. There are millions of people in the world believing and supporting his ideas. An American professor in a highly respected University
has been organizing events, meetings to promote Fethullah Gulen's ideas, for what? A poor man in Istanbul is visiting his friends to collect some money to fund a poor student in Africa for his education. Businessmen in Kazakhstan are gathering for a fundraiser to start a school. Do you think it is to fight against the army in Turkey? To take over the country? To convert Turkey into an Islamic State? Please don't be ridiculous. Please open your eyes.

You say that some prominent officials in Turkey have been arrested in Turkey. Look at them, who supports them in public other than people like you. They have been taking care of themselves all the time as it looks. We know how much is their salary, look at the properties they have. You have to make millions a year to own them. What have they done for the sake of the country so far?

We are talking about a democratic country, is it that easy to take over the entire system to arrest those highly respected! prominent officials. They are the ones who setup the system in Turkey, are they that weak to protect themselves from these attacks? As we follow from the news all the time, they have planned many times to take over the country, a democratic country, and had been proven million times and you are saying that they are innocent. Turkan Saylam's organization has been providing scholarship for the members of PKK, a terroristic organization in Turkey. Now you tell me, who has been trying to take over the country. Who has an agenda?

Mr Cagaptay is missing certain basic facts:
- Gulen Movement has never been a supporter of Islamic Welfare Party (RP) in the 90's and they have been criticized for this harshly by some Islamist journalists. Rusen Cakir would confirm this fact.

- Ergenekon case is not just some wiretaps or 5000 pages of documents. There were bombs (in a submarine), guns, rifles, grenades and other ammunition found buried in different places. And some of these weapons are linked to some unsolved crimes in 90's after ballistic analysis.

- Yes it's true people are confused in Turkey about this whole case because of disinformation and allegations but it's hard to say people who support Ergenekon case is one type (i.e. Gulenist). There are Turkish Armenians (especially after Hrant Dink case), Alevi's, Kurds as well as Sunni Muslims in the supporting camp of this case. It's almost impossible to say (even as a conspiracy theory) these people are all working towards Gulen's "shadowy movement"'s goals.
- Also it's impossible to call all Ergenekon case supporters as "Islamist Media" or "Gulenist Media", this is simply not true. These people are public figures such as Cengiz Candar, Mehmet Altan, Eser Karakas, Alpay Sahin most of them are from a leftist background. Again no rational argument can claim these people are working towards with a hidden Islamist motivation.

If Gulen indeed tolerates all cultures and religions, then why is he caught on tape saying that Vatican is the mother of all evil, the reason why blood is being spilled all over the world?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjTSbMjXy6c&feature=related

if Gulen does not have a hidden agenda then why is he caught on tape saying that they must first set up a spider web to wait for people to fall into it and then slowly enlarge it, that they should start with one school and then expand?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Rl_v9QCEM&feature=related

If Gulen is indeed a true Muslim, a good man in heart, then why does he advicate lying and cheating in the path to "Islam"? Why is he justifying deceat, murder, and lies?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pieYV8C60RQ&feature=related

The man is full of lies, the movement is full of lies but what is more astonishing is that despite all this evidence out there people still keep following him.

A few facts to question the integrity of Cagaptay's article. There are too many but a few would be enough.

1. "Specifically, the officers were charged with authoring a 5,000-page memo..."

The charge is not "authoring 5,000 page document," As we gather, the charge is "attempting to bring down a legitimately elected government."

2. "Three days later, the former commanders of the navy and air force were released.."

They were released not because they were not charged but because there was no sign that they could try escaping prosecution. Yes, they will be tried in the following days.

3. "no one has been prosecuted for this wiretap against the chief of staff"

The wiretapping has been done in Brussels, not in Turkey.

4. "Although some of the people interrogated and arrested might have been involved in criminal wrongdoing, most appear to be innocent."

So, there are criminals in this case, Soner believes. But was not the whole thing fabricated by the Gulenist prosecutors?

5. "Because of Ergenekon, Turks who oppose the AKP and the Gülen movement fear to speak their minds freely."

Oh, no! How misleading this is! Countless articles and news information criticizing the AKP and the Gulen Movement appear in the Turkish news media daily and nothing happens to them. There are columnists that criticize and assault the AKP in every piece of article they write and they are able to speak their mind freely.

6. "Although the chief of staff said the documents were doctored, they were recently used as evidence, with the support of anonymous witnesses, to arrest serving generals and admirals. "

The chief of staff said this before seeing these documents, which were apparently kept secret to the chief of staff office at the time. Examination of the documents in the ciriminal labs proved that the documents are not doctored. Why do we have to trust the chief of staff, who did not see the documents, not the ciriminal lab that examined them. What is wrong with keeping secret the identity of witnesses against powerful commanders in the powerful Turkish army, anyway?

The real case in Turkey unlike as it is presented is not the tension between religion and secularism, but it is between Status quo (Turkish Gladio or Ergenekon) and Democracy. Religion, ethnical differences and secularism have been used to hide insidious plans of small but well organized group, which always hides behind the notion of secularism. The defenders of military coups in the expense of democracy in Turkey are not giving up easily. Soner Cagaptay is really upset with the democracy is finally flourishing un Turkey. The world is changing, so does Turkey. The real fight in Turkey is between those who support democracy and those with the establishment. Soner Cagaptay is not only hasty to make the conclusion, but also interpreting the facts in Turkey wrong. There are many intellectuals, academicians, writers, and columnists and like who are liberals, from right and left, who are religious or none and who are against the establishment; one thing is common about them, each of them strongly supports the Democratic process. Cagaptay’s efforts to defame everybody who is against the deep state establishments is not selling, none is buying it. Involving Fetuhllah Gulen into arresting of military officers is a dirty game, which Cagaptay is good at. A case involves with serious allegations against coup plotters should make anyone concerned with democracy and democratic process happy. In the case of Cagaptay, he seems very upset with the new developments; he stretches his comments as far to do a fear mongering on a very credible journal. Fear of Islam always is the best seller in the west, and it seems that Cagaptay knows this best,. He is trying to create a fear amongst western readers against Turkey by blaming Fethullah Gulen, a well known religious sufi leader of plotting against coup plotters….. It seems like he is obsessed with the Ergenekon case and everybody against it. He suggests us to support Ergenekon case, keep military unaccountable of their acts, give them a freedom to overthrow any democratically elected government if they do not like it as they did four times in the past, Why? because a religious leader such as Fethullah Gulen might be behind all of the investigations......
Your story, Mr. Cagaptay, has a lot of flaws in it….
Cagaptay paints such blurry picture that as if police is deciding on who to arrest and where to search. Arresting of any military officer, even a lowest ranking does not take place without cooperation between civilian court and the military. If the claims against them are not strong, I do not think the military in Turkey will not easily send one of their own to jail. So, the real focus, instead of finger pointing, should be on what are the accusations against those Generals and military officers.

If you want to read an alternative story about what is going on in Turkey, read this: http://www.thewhitepath.com/archives/2008/12/now_ergenekon_makes_even_more_sense.php

I find Dr. Soner Cagaptay's article is very biased based on certain media news collected from daily newspapers rather than the facts. As Foreign Policy referenced to earlier publication entitled "Meet Foreign Policy's Top Public Intellectual of 2008", and whose ideas and objectives are well-documented at http://www.fgulen.org/, Mr. Gulen dedicated his life to love and compassion of humanity with excellence in education.
I believe Soner's ideas mentioned in his article are no different than bunch of claims of arrested and suspicious Ergenekon members whose plans would devastate Turkey and take back to ancient ages.
Turkey has never been that much close to European Union and a real democracy before. Imagine a county where just a certain group of people would use entire resources, money and never been monitored, audited, even questioned their any action and wrong doings then would you consider any democracy in that County? Today's Turkey is politically and economically is much stronger than before and a small minority of Ergenekon Terrorist Organization would not want to lose their share and power on their illegal existence.
I suggest readers to check an alternate article from one of Turkey's influential scholar and writer, Mr. Etyen Mahcupyan at:
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/columnists-202659-the-last-days-of-pompeii.html

Peace
Reg Pecan, Ph.D.

dear soner,

can you offer any proof for you allegations?
what do you have that substantiates your claim that mr. gulen is behind this?

sure, his media has supported the probe, but so has taraf and other liberal media.

also, please, as a reminder, you work for winep, right?

truth is, my friend, you are full of it and you know it.

turkey is becoming a democracy, not just a "democracy".
from now on, the power will be with the elected, not the appointed.
niether you, nor your neo-fascist friends in turkey, nor your masters at winep can prevent it.

live with it.

Mr. Soner has changed so rapidly about Gülen. As if he has been prepared as a project by some people and these people pushed the button finally.imagine an intellectual person turned to a manupilator unexpectedly. What a consistence.

The author does not provide an objective analysis; neither for the gulen movement nor for the ergenekon case; the gulen movement could be criticized for several reasons; although it's a very powerful organization it's broadly peaceful and moderate.

Some problems of the Movement are not unique; other Islamic movements have also similar problems such as hierarchical nature; yet it's also reality for many non-Islamic religious movements and institutions such as the Catholic Church. Yes, I agree the Gulen Movement has many members in the state institutions yet every Turkish citizen has such a right as much as bounded by the constitutional limits. The members do not have connection with violence or radicalism.

Moreover, the Ergenekon case is a serious issue for the democratic consolidation in Turkey. Not just the Gulen Movement but many secular people (intellectuals, journalists, academicians, etc) also take it as a litmus test for a better democracy in the country in which three or four coup d'etats happened along with countless indirect army intervention in politics that is unacceptable for a country who tries to join the democratic club of European Union. So, if the Gulen Movement cares about the Ergenekon so many other secular democratic people do.

Furthermore, the author, as far as I know from his other writings, always portray opinions in favor of Israel (who works in a Jewish lobby in DC.) and against Islam. Therefore, his analysis should be judged in this context.

You would be able to find links between irrelevant people and groups and communities, as long as you want to. Links do not give clues about what s done and why s done. It can help you explain what your doing but it is never considered to be the focal associations. Whatever prosecuters are doing is being done because of recently found military armament buried/located in many places starting from 2007. Many officials are detained because of alleged coup 'plot's. If somebody finds their name on a list as one of those to be supressed, they would not just say oh this is just a script and writing, it doesnt matter what it means. Now, that gives clues about the intention and evil plans of those who wrote that list. Today, we see many lists, blacklists of people, government officials, academicians, and people from everyday life and those were created by those who are testifying before civil courts and those who are in jail. Some people are in jail because there is evidence that already made them guilty and responsible. The trial did not end and wont end untill and unless this terrorist organization called 'Ergenekon' has not been digged out from underground completely.Jurisdiction decided that it is terrorist organization for some reason: that is they used weapon and armament to create unrest and tension, cause civil war and overthrow the government. Time is the best interpreter.

I really surprised what a fast reply comes from FGC, defending themselves and has really great arguments against Cagptay.

They say;

Ça?aptay uses Foreign Policy in smear campaign against Gülen

Soner Ça?aptay of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy has added yet another controversy to his record by writing a highly biased and unscholarly piece for Foreign Policy, a US publication, misrepresenting the truth of the historic Ergenekon probe.

Observers have said the article, published on Feb. 25, seriously distorts realities surrounding the ongoing Ergenekon probe -- which aims to expose the deep state nested within the military, academia and the business world -- and targets the faith-based civil society movement inspired by Fethullah Gülen. Though the article contains numerous allegations and accusations against Gülen personally and his movement as well as the Turkish government, Ça?aptay does not provide a single piece of evidence to support his arguments.

In a piece titled “What's Really Behind Turkey's Coup Arrests?” Ça?aptay claims that the power behind the launching of the Ergenekon probe is Gülen. “The only quality that ties together all of those arrested is their opposition to the AKP [Justice and Development Party (AK Party)] government and the Gülen movement. Zekeriya Oz, the chief prosecutor leading the Ergenekon case, and Ramazan Akyurek, the head of the police's domestic intelligence branch, as well as other powerful people in the police, are thought by some to be Gülen sympathizers,” the analyst alleges.

»» Click here to read "Ça?aptay's latest analysis: ill-informed, ill-intentioned" by ?HSAN YILMAZ

However, what apparently infuriated Ça?aptay is the detention of about 50 retired and active duty members of the military on Feb. 22 on charges of plotting a coup. This was the highest profile crackdown ever carried out on the military. The detainees are accused of involvement in military coup plots titled Balyoz (Sledgehammer) and Kafes (Cage). The plots include blowing up mosques during Friday prayers, setting off explosives in a museum during a visit by young students and turning stadiums into open-air prisons to hold people who challenge coup troops.

The Ergenekon probe is believed to present a historic opportunity for Turkey to confront its dark past and call to account coup instigators -- be they members of the military or civilians. Ça?aptay's piece caused disappointment and surprise among many Turkish and foreign observers, who termed it “cheap conspiracy.”

“This piece is merely an example of a distortion of facts and misinformation. It's very biased. The Ergenekon probe is of the utmost importance for Turkish democracy,” stated Orhan Kemal Cengiz of the Third Sector Foundation of Turkey (TÜSEV). Cengiz also expressed his disappointment with Foreign Policy for publishing such a controversial piece that lacks any proof for its arguments.

“It raises eyebrows to see such a piece in the international arena. How could Foreign Policy publish that piece? I wonder how such a cheap conspiracy made its way into a serious publication. Ça?aptay's piece has no depth. It is filled with groundless accusations. It does not include a single statement with veracity,” Cengiz said. Ça?aptay was not immediately available for comment despite repeated attempts by Sunday's Zaman to reach him.

In his piece, Ça?aptay argues that the government's intention with the Ergenekon probe is to intimidate the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), rather than proceed with an indictment against high-ranking officers. At this point, however, the analyst fails to inform his readers that civilian prosecutors have thus far prepared three separate indictments against Ergenekon suspects that amount to several thousands of pages. The suspects are accused of establishing an armed organization with the ulterior motive of overthrowing a democratically elected government and Parliament.

?hsan Bal, head of the Terrorism and Security Studies Unit at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), indicated that military preparations for a coup d'état and documents detailing such preparations have been verified by civilian and military prosecutors.

“All [coup] documents have been proven genuine. Simultaneous operations [against Ergenekon suspects] have been launched. Are all prosecutors engaged in a conspiracy? That is ridiculous. Which of Ça?aptay's allegations should I respond to? What we see is that even serious publications can make mistakes,” Bal added.

One of many controversial points included in Ça?aptay's piece is his effort to link the Gülen movement to the AK Party: “A mountain has moved in Turkish politics. All shots against the military are now fair game, including those below the belt. The force behind this dramatic change is the Fethullah Gülen Movement (FGH), an ultraconservative political faction that backs the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). … It is a conservative movement aiming to reshape secular Turkey in its own image, by securing the supremacy of Gülen's version of religion over politics, government, education, media, business, and public and personal life.”

However, Gülen stressed on various occasions that he does not harbor any political ambitions and does not throw his support behind any political party. In an interview with Foreign Policy in 2008, for example, Gülen said: “I have never had, nor will I ever have, any [political] ambitions. The only thing on which I have always set my heart is being able to gain God's good pleasure and, therefore, trying to make him known correctly and loved by humanity.”

According to Ça?aptay, the Gülen movement controls the national police and its powerful domestic intelligence branch and exerts increasing influence on the judiciary. “Criticizing the Gülen movement … has become as taboo as assailing the military once was. Today, it is those who criticize the Gülen movement who get burned,” he remarks. The analyst's argument is, however, strongly opposed to by Michael Thumann, Die Zeit's Middle East bureau chief in ?stanbul.

“The sentence regarding the Gülen movement and its control of the national police is very hard to substantiate. The idea that Gülen is behind [the Ergenekon probe] is preposterous. Nobody can tell to what extent. No single proof. Why should journalists not be interested in those coup plans without being on the payroll of someone?” he asked. Thumann also expressed disapproval of Ça?aptay's opinion of the Taraf daily. In his piece, Ça?aptay said, “Specifically, the officers were charged with authoring a 5,000-page memo that was later published in Taraf, a paper whose editorial policy is singularly dedicated to bashing the military.”

“I am very happy that Taraf exists. It is a good source for us. They cannot disclose their sources, of course, but for me it is a very important source as a foreign journalist here. It is a newspaper accused of being close to the government. [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdo?an was very angry when Taraf called him ‘Pa?as?n?n Ba?bakan?' [The Pasha's Prime Minister]. Ça?aptay is entirely misrepresenting Taraf. Taraf is a newspaper which has driven the political process with its publication. It's important for freedom of the press in Turkey. Some people try to depict Taraf as a supporter of the government; that's a misrepresentation,” Thumann added.

Ça?aptay also accuses “the Gülen-controlled parts” of the judiciary and police of illegally wiretapping those entangled in the Ergenekon case and subsequently leaking details of their intimate lives, such as infidelity, to pro-AK Party and pro-Gülen media in order to damage their reputations. Not surprisingly, the analyst does not point to any evidence to solidify his argument, nor does he mention the wiretapping of prominent figures from various circles by Ergenekon members. A police raid at an ultranationalist newsweekly in 2009 discovered sound recordings of phone conversations of the prime minister, several Cabinet members, journalists and mayors.

Furthermore, the analyst claims that the Gülen movement supported a coalition government led by the now-defunct Welfare Party (RP) in the late 1990s. Sources close to Gülen, however, strongly denied the claim.

Assessing Ça?aptay's writing style, Alper Görmü?, a columnist from the Taraf daily, told Sunday's Zaman that they can see Ça?aptay's fundamental characteristics in this article, too. When asked what he meant, he said Ça?aptay puts forth claims but offers no evidence.

“We know him; it is very natural to see such articles be written in his militant writing style. But it is impossible to understand how a journal like Foreign Policy, which is highly concerned about the level of academic rigor the articles it publishes contain, can run such an article,” Görmü? noted.

Criticizing Foreign Policy's publication policy, Görmü? said it is clear that, following Sept. 11, fast-growing Islamophobia has replaced Americans' cool-headed demeanor. “In the 1960s Turkey had the goal of being a ‘small America.' Following the change in atmosphere that dominated American media and politics after Sept. 11, I wrote in my article that ‘Turkey could not become a small America but America has become a big Turkey.' It seems such a process is continuing in America as such an article managed to be published in Foreign Policy,” Görmü? concluded.

Twisting the facts
According to Emre Uslu, an analyst working with the Washington-based think tank The Jamestown Foundation, Ça?aptay twists many facts to use them as a basis for his arguments in his piece.

“For example, he says police interrogated Türkan Saylan for allegedly plotting a coup from her death bed. However, no such thing occurred. Police searched Saylan's house and office after discovering that the NGO she was leading was being used as a means to infiltrate the military. I cannot understand how Foreign Policy published a piece that dramatizes an incident that never occurred,” Uslu said.

Professor Saylan, the founder of the Support for Modern Life Association (ÇYDD), died in May 2009 shortly after a police raid at her house and office as part of the Ergenekon probe. Evidence uncovered in the investigation has hinted that the ÇYDD may have served as a sub-unit of Ergenekon.

“Ça?aptay also says the only quality that ties together professors Kemal Gürüz and Mehmet Haberal is their opposition to the AK Party government and the Gülen movement. However, no one can find a single word the two used against the Gülen movement before the launch of the Ergenekon probe. How does he derive an anti-Gülen position for the two professors?” Uslu asked.

Both Gürüz and Haberal were detained and later arrested last year on suspicion of links to Ergenekon. Gürüz was released pending trial while Haberal remains in a hospital for alleged health problems. “I would not expect such twists from an intelligent writer like Ça?aptay and such a biased publication from Foreign Policy. The piece does not reflect the truth in Turkey. It has problems both in content and meaning,” Uslu added.

Not Ça?aptay's first time disseminating misinformation
The analyst also attempted to misrepresent facts regarding the Ergenekon case with a highly controversial piece he wrote for the March 8 issue of Newsweek magazine. In his piece, titled “Turkey's Turning Point,” Ça?aptay alleged that the AK Party and its ultraconservative allies in the Gülen movement, known as Gülenists, have been deploying friendly police agents to wiretap and arrest top military officers on coup charges.

The analyst sparked a heated debate in Turkey with his article, with many writers calling on Newsweek readers to take Ça?aptay's conflicting arguments with a grain of salt and take a deeper look into the various Turkish media outlets to gain a better understanding of the Ergenekon case.

In an op-ed he wrote for The Washington Post in February 2009, Ça?aptay claimed that Turkey, under the AK Party's governance, was turning its back on the West and abandoning its commitments to US policy. In response to the analyst's assertion, a senior AK Party politician said Ça?aptay's op-ed contained “grossly misleading information.”

In his latest piece for Newsweek, Ça?aptay targeted Ergenekon prosecutors, calling them “Gülenists” who were arresting secular prosecutors who were investigating fundraising networks run by the Gülen movement and its connections to terrorists in Chechnya and Hamas.

FGC is attacking Foreign Policy editors as well in their defense. I hope we can read the answer for their arguments by Foreign Policy Editorial team.. lol..

To be honest, I like to read this war .. :)))

What's really behind cagaptay's article? Either he likes to entertain people which by the way I do apprecite or its groundless fear, which in turn prevents him from thinking logically and as a result what we have here is the start of a science fiction novel. Why a novel? because one does not need to provide any sort of evidence to write it. All you need is an imagination.

This article clearly shows the mindset and relentless determination of those individuals who had a long habit of doing what is so called a “desktop publishing”. As one thinker said, “ before I respond to anyone, I would look at the words if they are really worthy to listen, and look at the person if he is a man worthy to be responded”. Had this article have at least 10% sweat, and 90% inspirational conspiracy, I would have given the author a credit for producing something worthy to really respond.
There are several fallacy –I better call it-predoctrination
1. For any reasonably-objective reader, looking at the title is itself enough to understand how bias the author will be in putting his arguments, delivering his messages to manipulate the minds of those who have no background information on this subject.
2. You can not add up oranges with apples, although they are both fruits. Gulen’s movement and Ergenekon, though they are both movements of some sort, cannot be linked in any way. First and foremost Ergenekon is an illegal underground organization that has been nesting under the tents of some corrupt army generals, with the ambition to manipulate Turkey’s political agenda to serve their very own interest despite the free fell of people. The author speaks—perhaps was asked to speak by some- as if there were no military coup carried out to a civilian government in Turkey by these corrupt military generals and their associates in the streets. On the other hand, Gulen movement is a voluntary civilian movement formed by like-minded people who responded Gulen’s call for fighting ignorance as the precursor of all social turbulence by educating our young generation as they are the leaders of tomorrow’s world. Therefore, Gulen’s movement includes people from different ethnic, religious, socio-economic backgrounds. I have seen Jews, secular Turks, liberal Muslim, and people from all folks of life voluntarily supporting the common cause. Had Gulen movement have any political agenda and show any tendency toward any political party, the movement will naturally dissolve itself—instead of sustaining this long-due to ethnic and political diversity and differences in opinion.
3. The article and its content reminds me several of the same kind of articles originally written by the same anti-democratic groups—who traditionally claim themselves as the ideological father of the new Turkish republic, and who don’t really want to give chance to other opinions to germinate in the Turkey. Therefore, they are blindly, and biologically against any democratic formation or organizations by free people for free people, such as the Gulen movement.

Anyway, there are a lot to say, but this article is so bias, and very far from being objective, so no need to comment any further as it will not make any difference on the eyes of those who already predoctrined not to see the other side of the coin..

Ça?aptay did this nonsense before. I really don't understand where he is going !

All his allegations are biased and unproven. His accusations to Mr Gulen of being a supporter of the RP government is a total lie because Mr Gulen is known as he is at the equal distance to all parties.

Ça?aptay also claims that “the military … opposes the AKP and the Gülenists because it sees itself as the virtual guardian of Turkey's secular polity à la Atatürk's vision, serving as a bulwark against religion's domination over politics and government.” But why does Ça?aptay not look at the EU progress reports on Turkey that totally discredit his claims and ask for a more transparent, democracy-friendly and accountable army? Why do EU officials always reiterate that the Ergenekon case gives them hope for the future of Turkish democracy? It seems that everybody in the EU has become Gülen sympathizers! It seems that they are not as intelligent as Ça?aptay!

Ça?aptay also allegedly writes that Gülen said “to his followers in a message broadcast on Turkish TV in 1999 that ‘every method and path is acceptable [including] lying to people'.” Even in the doctored video that Ça?aptay mentions (he never says that it was broadcast to accuse Gülen but gives the impression that it was Gülen who broadcast this message), he never said this. Also, a staunchly secularist prosecutor prepared an indictment against Gülen based on this doctored video recording, and the Feb. 28 coup's mighty generals openly supported him, but the courts, including the highest court, the Court of Cassation, found Gülen not guilty, as Ça?aptay mentions only briefly.

I also ask the editors of FP to reconsider Ça?aptay's maturity to write articles for FP. His articles do not reflect the reality, but only his biased and untrue accusations.

Cagaptay's article is biased. He does not mention how the military elite has long manipulated the realities. I'm a sociologist conducting a research in Kurdish politics. Those military officers who are arrested have long been involved in corruption by forming alliances with the terrorists. Now, the irony is that Cagaptay defends democracy for the sake of oligarchic military elite's interests. Isn't it what Orwell called doublethink: War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength? Full of logical flaws!

not suprised with cagaptay's article. cagaptay was perhaps blind and was not informed all of the ammunition hidden underground all over the Anatolian land. Yes if generals wanted to perform coup they would not write 500 pages of memo. but they would hide ammunition under ground all over the turkish land including highly dangerous LAW (light-AntiTank Weapon). cagaptay is ergenekon's us representative to damage image of a moderate islamic scholar. if you wanto research more i would suggest everbody to take a look at the similarities of ergenekon and gladio in Italy. Italian officials even mentioned the similarities of these two cases in front of cameras.
cagaptay is defending kemal gurus who has been one of the most anti-democratic character in Turkey by being one of the most important supporters of scarf band in universities. mehmet haberal is a succesfl doctor with many accomplishments in his field including first cadaveric kidney transplantation in Turkey and first assasination planner of a Turkish Prime Minister (Bulent Ecevit) in his own hospital. turkan saylan's foundation was perhaps still is providing help to poor college girls who are the fans of PKK from rural areas. when it comes to other poor girls who are not PKK fans they would deny thier application. don't you call this discrimination mr. cagaptay.

he sounds like he is the defender of the ergenekon terrorist organization which want Turkey to become juristocratic nation. president of Turkey has not been elected by "the people", elected by congress. previous president whoa was a fanatic ultra nationalist appointed jusdges in all levels of the jurisdiction. under Turkish law once the president appoints judges in any level no one including Turkish Parliement or any comission does not havethe right to question the appointment. Is this democracy or autocracy? Justice and development party changed the way the president is elected in Turkey. By directly asking "the people", (taking a ballot vote). Now, Justice and Development Party wants to change the way the Supreme Court Judges are appointed. But people in cagaptay's, kemal guruz's, mehmet haberal's and turkan saylan's mind set wants to stop this democratic reform.

mr. cagaptay is not only criticizing justice and development party but also criticizing people who want to live in a democratic nation.

In addition, even military court said that "balyoz" (sledge hammer) coup memos are not scenerio it was written with the intention of a possible military coup. Even military court says this what are you talking about mr. cagaptay. What does Gulen have to do with this when military itself accepts the coup plans.

there is more to write but do not have time!

"The clash between the Islamist Welfare Party (RP) government, which was supported by the FHG, and the military was at the center of this conflict."

Are you kidding me, FHG supporting RP! Every Turkish who knows both a little would laugh at this.

"In 1997, the Turkish military orchestrated a public campaign against the RP."

It sounds really innocent, but Turkish people know it was not. Let's not forget tanks on the streets and a direct intervention to the national senate! Also let's not forget the lies that appeared on TV news which are a part of this "public campaign"

When you call a friend in Turkey don't forget to ask these as well!!!

So sick of this stuff from Sonar, how the hell did he get to a point where he can publish fiction in supposedly credible news sources.

Soner Cagaptay is not aware what he is telling in this article. I really like the comments of nick "someone" saying this "novel" ...Soner Cagaptay, please wake up and see tthe truth...Gulen MOVEMENT is about peace, building bridges to everyone, respect others,Gulen movement means; help, trust, care... Please be objective and write the truth...

a classic of cagaptay, an article formed by cliche words.

This man has sold his academic soul for a lost cause. He apparently has some grievances to Turkish-Ottoman past due to his Kurdish-Alevi background and uses every opportunity to spread false propaganda about Turkish politics and foreign policy. One day he accuses AKP of steering Turkish foreign policy out of its Western orbit, even though it is the AKP government that remains the only genuine supporter of EU reforms. Another day he takes on the Gulen movement as orchestrating a campaign against the military. Interestingly I don't have remember that the most brutal suppression against his Kurdish-Alevi kins in Turkey was orchestrated by the militarist Kemalists whom he now supports. I don't have to remind him this because he is the author of a book that is the best on the subject.
The irony of the matter is that Soner is able to publish this utter rubbish pieces in an apparently quality outlet like Foreign Policy simply because of his links with influential policy circles in DC, including the institution that he works for: WINEP. If you want to know more about WINEP, you should go no further than Israeli Lobby, the book by John Mearsheimer, and Stephen Walt who happens to be a blog writer for Foreign Policy. Why the Lobby is so angry about Turkish democratization or civilian control over the military is because it brings Turkish public opinion as a factor into the calculation of Turkish national interests. The Lobby does not want Turkish public opinion to be part of Turkish foreign policy and this is only possible if Turkey remains authoritarian. So the lobby does its best to enlist its troops to spread its propaganda. But it is too late, Turkish democratization has reached a stage where it is not anymore possible to return. A democratic reversal in Turkey will simply be the final nail in the coffin of Turkish militarists because it will surely backfire this time.

there is a big war over Turkey, between US-Israel-Germany-Russia and China. there is only one huge movement and voice of Turkey, and somebody wants to destroy it.
Turkish citizen wants to be really democrat, will never want to be a juristic country. lots of players of orher countries in Turkey were showen up to all world, they are all losing their players... and now time for juristic players!
it is really a war between airstocrat white Turkish guys who are not really Turkish in deed and the real Turkih citizen who are really Anatolian people!
i think; FP wanted to see the reaction of Turkish citizen if they are really supporting the movement against to Ergenekon and if they really supports Gulen Movement.
let`s see together

It is very ironic to see that Mr. Cagaptay gives benefit of the doubt to the military generals who were arrested based on thousands of pages of original documents and voice recordings and yet easily portrays these arrests made by independent prosecutors as political arrests and links the Gulen Movement to these arrests based on no factual evidence. This mere fact shows that the article is far away from being objective. Moreover there are numerous incorrect and inaccurate information given in the article that requires pages to explain. One thing that I agree with him is the following: "If you have doubts, call a friend in Turkey and ask for an opinion of the case." They will tell you that the allegations in this article are far away from being true.

ba

It is not surprising to see Mr Cagaptay against the democratic revolution that is taking place in Turkey. These military coupes directly aimed at the EU candidacy of Turkey. These gangs in the army are longing for a fascist administration that would oppress all minority groups, including Armenians, Greeks and Kurds. Please be aware of the Turkish hypocrite elitist who claim that they are liberal but on the other hand they undermine the democratic reforms. I am afraid Mr Cagaptay is one of them.
Please check the following link for the facts about his claims;
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-202830-cagaptay-uses-foreign-policy-in-smear-campaign-against-gulen.html

Hi,
I am quite disappointed with Cagaptay's article. I think Mr. Cagaptay has not done enough research about Mr. Gulen. As I see, he has just translated some writings which are not based upon reasonable proofs. They are the products of systematic lies and blanket accusations.

Comment on the coup scenarios as "ridiculous" !!
What is so ridiculous, what you hear in the voice recordings of generals, do you think they are generated by computers, don't you listen to them? They speak of their intentions very clearly. They have no tolerance whatsoever for the people who are not like them and who are more popular/powerful than them, be it from left wing or right wing.

Release of the generals in 3 days
They are released because it is believed that they won't run away, not because they are proven innocent, they will still be tried because of attempts of overthrowing the government. Today they arrested 2 high ranking officials. In total they arrested around 35 of the 49 people taken in to custody, some retired some not. Do you think lower-ranking officers can do all those plans without some direction from the high-ranking?

Shots against the army, fair?
I love the army, they are there to protect our country from foreign invasion. What I don't like is anyone in the army not doing his own job, but gets in to politics and try to wipe off the government that 47% of the people elected in a democratic way. No one is attacking the army, army is being cleaned from its dirt. You sound like you are ok with yet another coup in this country, please wake up, we are in the 21st century.

"An ultraconservative political faction"
Please do an honest research, you would see that there is nothing ultra-conservative about this movement, (look at the hundreds of schools around the world that are upheld by the governments of the countries they are in, look at hundreds of events that brought people of all sorts of faiths, cultures together to promote peace and understanding) and nothing political either, check countless speeches and articles from Fethullah Gulen saying that they don't have any business with politics, and his life is a big proof of that. You only lose credit by stating your biased imagination versus the facts.

Untouchable and Controlling the Police and others
You are stating your imagination here again. What is your evidence? All these allegations, Fethullah Gulen has been proven innocent from them after a long trial. You are complaining about "fair shots". Those "fair shots" have been fired to him without limit, (and here yours is one of those shots) and proven all wrong. Students wearing scarf cannot go to the universities, religious high school graduates cannot enter to the university departments that they want in Turkey. If F.G. was powerful enough to be untouchable as you said, why do these things still happen in Turkey?

"...are thought by some to be Gülen sympathizers."
What is this? Is this an allegation, or sneaky shot? Who is that some? What is behind their thoughts? "Some" thinking like this, doesn't make it so. If the prominent people you are mentioning had issues with AKP or Gulen Movement, and those issues led them to commit crime, what did you expect government to do? They are being tried because of what they do, not because of to whom they are against.

Your article is truly full of baseless allegations in the air with no ground whatsoever. You can't just say that police is wiretapping the Ergenekon people. Which police, show a shred of evidence. You are doing fair shots all over. It is police's and judiciary system's responsibility to find out who is attempting to overthrow the government. Why do you have a problem with that?

Not sure how you concluded that the arrests are arbitrary, do you know the decision process of the prosecutors, the materials that they have to make the decision? If you do, tell us how you get that information I am curious, but if not you are again speaking your imagination.

In the contrary, I am seeing more and more people who are speaking their minds a lot more freely in recent years compared to a decade ago, compared to 2 decades ago and so on. Look at all the newspapers, TV channels, magazines. Please learn that freedom is not peculiar to a certain group of people, it is for everyone. And don't confuse false accusations,"fair shots", misleading, deception with freedom of speech.

So the reason for the arrests and the Ergenekon case is merely the fact that - according to your saying, army opposes AKP and Gulen - is that so? Be a little bit conscientious and try to see the real reason of these arrests and the Ergenekon case. It is obvious that there was a deliberate act from a group of people in Turkey who attempted to overthrow the government, which has huge legal consequences for the committers. One might not like, AKP, might not like Gulen's ideas, but if this dislike fuels illegal acts, which is the case here, then you have to act against it. We listen to these recordings and hear how full of hatred they are against religious people just because they choose to live their faith.

You are either totally misinformed of some very clear facts or you have a sole intention of misleading people. It is a widely known fact that Fethullah Gulen was not supportive of RP party in 90's due to their radical sayings. It is proven by the courts of Turkey that Gulen has no intentions of interfering with Turkish government whatsoever, the video clips triggered the case were edited and combined clips that were taken out of the context and serviced to the public via the media.

About going through the veins of the system, if people are insane enough to be determined to crush you because of your faith, of course then you have to take precaution against it, you cannot freely live your faith due to concerns of being taken out. You keep quiet and save yourself a psychological torture. What would you do?

Gulen doesn't support a political party, never had. He supports people who want to serve their country for good, whether it is a politician or not, AKP member or not, police or not, army personnel or not. Please do yourself a favor and try to see what Gulen has been trying to do for all his life. Look at his books, sermons, educational activities, speeches, not just to couple minutes edited out of context clips out of his hours and hours of videos that touch the hearts of millions.

A long column full of lies and one-sided ideas... an author full with hate and enemy to the majority of Turkish Nation... a 180 degree false explanations about what's going on in Turkey...
This is the brief...
I ashame of this article and this author and this column and this FP bulletine in the name of reality and objectivism...
Any lie cannot chnage the reality itself... in the near time everything will appear, so be just calm down and let the Turkish judgement do its work...

I'm heartened by the comments I'm reading here in response to this amazingly bad article. Mr. Cagaptay is living in an alternate reality of conspiracy theories and blatant distortions. He sounds just like the coterie of Kemalists who still haven't come to grips with Turkish democracy. The truth is that CHP is becoming irrelevant, MHP fascism is on the rise, and AKP stands out as the only rational political force in the country. As long as the economy keeps growing, AKP won't be going anywhere unless by coup. I sincerely hope that those dark days are forever over.

For decades, it was imposed on the Turkish people that all the neighboring countries (such as Greece, Bulgaria, Syria and etc.) and the rest of the world were serious threat and enemy.Therefore, we had to pay from what ever we bought and our labor a large amount of tax to sustain a strong army. Within time the Turkish army has become among biggest after the Chinese, US, and Russia. The Turkish army was given all sorts of privileges and facilities, which they totally abused. Instead of supporting human rights, democracy, freedom, security inside the country and elswhere in the world; they have specialized in blacklistening their own people according to their religion, race, ethnicity, language. They have established their own deep state including newspapers, judiciary, TV channels, Companies, Universities, and whoever was considered a threat was somehow killed. Records of Turkish history will show you how many thousands of people were killed in order to maintain this millitary regime. Thats why the PKK, Kurdish, Armenina, Greek Cyprus problems never finishes in Turkey. Once they are solved the necessity for the big Turkish Army will be meaningless. Countless bags, sacks, and boxes, full of original documents, cds, photos, videos, etc approved by scientific organizations have shown the evil intentions of certain army officers and their affiliates to create chaos inside and outside Turkey. Is Soner blind to see them??? I am certain that once sent to CIA, FBI, NASA, they will confirm the authenticity of the documents.

I have belief in ultimate democracy. It seems that Soner is overmuch scared of equality among Turkish people because so far democracry has worked only for only a mariginal group of Turkish citizens, the White Turks. We want the support of the West at this critical point to provide everlasting peace and democracry in the region.

I can not believe that the person who wrote this article is an academist working in a US institution. I can not see a single fact in this article which is backed up with references. If you consider "an old friend" or "a turkish diplomat" references, then he has done a good job. It is a real shame for Foreign Policy to publish this article which is only full of gossips and hearsay. It is extremely misguiding and far from reflecting the real situation.

Belive tht The Analist wrote very objective article but got very big risk .. After this article he/his family members must be very carefeful and never use Phone/CD /Computer Etc , again if lives in Turkey.. They hv to put garbage all their letters/photos /CD/DVD etc ..
Bcs After this article , most probably they already commenced to monitor his phones /internets. Hope tht he wont be considered member of a terror organisation/public enemy and can not be arrested near future like other local Journalist/Professors

Also ''FP'' has to be ready to receive thousands of protect letters fm the said
Evangelist organisation..

Let's be fair, is Soner Cagaptay being one-sided in his arguments yes, do i agree with most of his arguments, yes, do his 'arguments' need material evidence to become proven as facts, yes, is this article under the section 'argument' yes, so why are all these people looking for an academic unbiasedness as if this is a refreed academic jouirnal i don't understand.

Other thing, those critisizing Cagaptay for his arguments and one-sidedness, who are very likely to be FG sypmphatizers, what do they think about their FG owned and backed media's behavior, both local and international, what is their excuse for their unprecetended, even for Turkey's standards, disregard for basic human rights such as 'innocent until proven guilty by a court of law', 'personal privacy', 'right to defend themselves on fair grounds', minimum respect for human dignity, do they think get to decide who deserves these rights or is this behavior their standard of the democracy they are creating. The way in which most allegations, most of which never make to official court documents, and most of them that do which are mostly circumstantial, first shows up in pro FG media, as if they are not allegations but very well proven facts based on sound material evidence. By now everyone knows once the police raids happen in this 3,5 half year ongoing open investigation, with 3 or 4 ongoing trials based on it, we will first hear bunch of terrible accusations that will shock even the most anti-FG or anti-AKP person in their media outlets, about the people being investigated. Time passes, some of these allegations turn out to be baseless and never again talked about, most based on circumstantial evidence and 'secret witnesses' yet what is left for the public is the evil plots against FG and AKP government that resonates, the defense against these type of repeated journalism that violates every single universal journilsm princaple as well as basic human rights? The greater cause of democracy and rule of law.

Nevermind the personal and legal rights of the indicted and some just accused and not even indicted people, or the fallacy of arguing bringing democracy and rule of law by first castrating it for your own agenda, a simple fact in these type of investigations is the secrecy for the sake of truth, i.e if you want to get to the bottom of it you should make sure your investigation is not open to public until it is ready to go to court. Has this ever been the case for what some call the greatest court case of Turkish history? Never. Do the attorneys of accused get access to most of these documents and evidence against them for the sake of fair defense? No, due to the level of secrecy of ongoing investigation. Everyone and everything must be first tried on public opinion through leakages from police and district attorney's office. Ignoring the problems with this road taken for a moment, even this is not handled on fair basis by this media, always what seems to be against these people, even some turn out to be fabricated, takes the stage with huge coverage, and almost always go unnoticed by these when they are falsified in a court of law. Hence the title of this comment.

One can only wonder why would such a strong case as most of these commentators claim need so much shaping for the public opinion. 4 years of investigation, 2,5 years since the first trial, hundreds of people, 4 stars generals, university presidents, journalists arrested and kept behind bars while being tried, yet still not a single guilty verdict. And this is a speedy trial, i.e if this was to be left to normal procedure with existing indictement and evidence structure, it would have taken at least 20 years for the judges to go through thousands of page of indigdement and millions (yes millions) of pages of irrelevant document presented to court as evidence and left for the judges to be figured out.

Why would such a strong case need so much clutter that would only delay the finding of the truth and a final court verdict? Why would any D.A. with such a strong case would feel the need for its case to be tried in public opinion first and even after realizing the way its done with so much baseless claims that turn out to be false only hurts its case in public eyes in the long run? Do all the trials go this way in Turkish Judicial system? not really. One current case being investigated as a continuance of an investigation and a guilty verdict in Germany, with people very close acquittance with prime minister Erdogan involved, with accusations of illegal use of money collected by a non-profit organization Deniz Feneri and money laundering, is being handled as it should be. For more then a year it started, not a single document has leaked from the police of the district attorney's office. So it is not really a systemic problem as it seems, just a particularity of this case.

So although the pro-FG and pro AKP commentators go slightly short of accusing him being a part of the Ergenokon gang in a conspiracy to overthrow AKP government and serve to those who wants to destroy FG movement, as they mostly do to those who refuses to take the accusations and allegations made which they chose to belive as unrefutable facts, Gareth Jenkins have the best objective, detailed and in depth coverage of what is going on in Ergenekon case and Turkish politics lately in English, and in probably any language for that matter. If you want go beyond simple cliche of fight for power between secular elite-rising pious muslim class, Jenkins' piece 'Between Fact and Fantasy: Turkey's Ergenekon Investigation' is a good source for the curious.

As for the FG movement, once what was a sipiritual movement based on religous writings, chosen to evolve into a religo-politico-financial power base depended so much on not the writings or sayings but existence of a single guy named Fettullah Gulen. AKP is a coalition of different parts of the society and a part is the symbiotic relationship with Gulen movement, and not even the dominant part i must say. Gulen and his ideas became ever increasingly worldly and political, his followers became ever increasingly wealthier, and for any ideology, so much linked to politcs power and money, it is much moer open to and viable to criticism and within power struggles in post Fettullah Gulen time. The followers are no longer the followers of the ideas of pre-Fettullah times but followers of Fettulah Gulen himself, who is a worldy being destined to come to an end, and with him, eventually his movement. 'Nur' movement will remain, as once was as a part of the society, but the Gulen movement, will loose its allure as it loses its political and financial power front as AKP eventually leaves power through democratic process. Coupling their fate with AKP, intentionally or unintentionally was a big mistake they made and it is hard for them to go back to the days of over-politics status, with slight sympathy for center right politics.

Gulen's movement is encouraging peace and friendship all over the world. There are approximately 1000 schools all around world. All of them has Turkish national flag. The most essential problem in Turkey is that some part of media, academicians and military force is still working for other forces, not Turkey. I hope Mr.Cagaptay is only biased, Mr. Cagaptay didn't do enough researches about Mr. Gulen. Maybe he translated some writings which are not based upon reasonable proofs. I hope Foreign Policy correct this mistake.

Closing eyes cannot cover the truth.

Turkey's past is full of suicides and unknown terror actions. Most of them were conducted by people who had been protected by "untouchables".

Nowadays, those crimes are uncovered and criminals are judged. This makes bad boys crazy.

They attack AKP and Gulen instead of explaining their faults and defending themselves. "The best defense is to attack".

We, Turkey, deserve democracy, freedom and clarity. We do not need Turkish army in politics. We do not need jurisdiction in ruling our country. We do not want Supreme Court rule the country. Only because we did not choose the for this.

Closing eyes cannot cover the truth.

Turkey's past is full of suicides and unknown terror actions. Most of them were conducted by people who had been protected by "untouchables".

Nowadays, those crimes are uncovered and criminals are judged. This makes bad boys crazy.

They attack AKP and Gulen instead of explaining their faults and defending themselves. "The best defense is to attack".

We, Turkey, deserve democracy, freedom and clarity. We do not need Turkish army in politics. We do not need jurisdiction in ruling our country. We do not want Supreme Court rule the country. Only because we did not choose the for this.

The analyst also attempted to misrepresent facts regarding the Ergenekon case with a highly controversial piece he wrote for the March 8 issue of Newsweek magazine. In his piece, titled “Turkey's Turning Point,” Ça?aptay alleged that the AK Party and its ultraconservative allies in the Gülen movement, known as Gülenists, have been deploying friendly police agents to wiretap and arrest top military officers on coup charges.
The analyst sparked a heated debate in Turkey with his article, with many writers calling on Newsweek readers to take Ça?aptay's conflicting arguments with a grain of salt and take a deeper look into the various Turkish media outlets to gain a better understanding of the Ergenekon case.

In an op-ed he wrote for The Washington Post in February 2009, Ça?aptay claimed that Turkey, under the AK Party's governance, was turning its back on the West and abandoning its commitments to US policy. In response to the analyst's assertion, a senior AK Party politician said Ça?aptay's op-ed contained “grossly misleading information.”

In his latest piece for Newsweek, Ça?aptay targeted Ergenekon prosecutors, calling them “Gülenists” who were arresting secular prosecutors who were investigating fundraising networks run by the Gülen movement and its connections to terrorists in Chechnya and Hamas.

what apparently infuriated Ça?aptay is the detention of about 50 retired and active duty members of the military on Feb. 22 on charges of plotting a coup. This was the highest profile crackdown ever carried out on the military. The detainees are accused of involvement in military coup plots titled Balyoz (Sledgehammer) and Kafes (Cage). The plots include blowing up mosques during Friday prayers, setting off explosives in a museum during a visit by young students and turning stadiums into open-air prisons to hold people who challenge coup troops.

The Ergenekon probe is believed to present a historic opportunity for Turkey to confront its dark past and call to account coup instigators -- be they members of the military or civilians. Ça?aptay's piece caused disappointment and surprise among many Turkish and foreign observers, who termed it “cheap conspiracy.”

“This piece is merely an example of a distortion of facts and misinformation. It's very biased. The Ergenekon probe is of the utmost importance for Turkish democracy,” stated Orhan Kemal Cengiz (President of Human Rights Agenda Association). Cengiz also expressed his disappointment with Foreign Policy for publishing such a controversial piece that lacks any proof for its arguments.

“It raises eyebrows to see such a piece in the international arena. How could Foreign Policy publish that piece? I wonder how such a cheap conspiracy made its way into a serious publication. Ça?aptay's piece has no depth. It is filled with groundless accusations. It does not include a single statement with veracity,” Cengiz said. Ça?aptay was not immediately available for comment despite repeated attempts by Sunday's Zaman to reach him.

In his piece, Ça?aptay argues that the government's intention with the Ergenekon probe is to intimidate the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), rather than proceed with an indictment against high-ranking officers. At this point, however, the analyst fails to inform his readers that civilian prosecutors have thus far prepared three separate indictments against Ergenekon suspects that amount to several thousands of pages. The suspects are accused of establishing an armed organization with the ulterior motive of overthrowing a democratically elected government and Parliament.

?hsan Bal, head of the Terrorism and Security Studies Unit at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), indicated that military preparations for a coup d'état and documents detailing such preparations have been verified by civilian and military prosecutors.

“All [coup] documents have been proven genuine. Simultaneous operations [against Ergenekon suspects] have been launched. Are all prosecutors engaged in a conspiracy? That is ridiculous. Which of Ça?aptay's allegations should I respond to? What we see is that even serious publications can make mistakes,” Bal added.

One of many controversial points included in Ça?aptay's piece is his effort to link the Gülen movement to the AK Party: “A mountain has moved in Turkish politics. All shots against the military are now fair game, including those below the belt. The force behind this dramatic change is the Fethullah Gülen Movement (FGH), an ultraconservative political faction that backs the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). … It is a conservative movement aiming to reshape secular Turkey in its own image, by securing the supremacy of Gülen's version of religion over politics, government, education, media, business, and public and personal life.”

However, Gülen stressed on various occasions that he does not harbor any political ambitions and does not throw his support behind any political party. In an interview with Foreign Policy in 2008, for example, Gülen said: “I have never had, nor will I ever have, any [political] ambitions. The only thing on which I have always set my heart is being able to gain God's good pleasure and, therefore, trying to make him known correctly and loved by humanity.”

According to Ça?aptay, the Gülen movement controls the national police and its powerful domestic intelligence branch and exerts increasing influence on the judiciary. “Criticizing the Gülen movement … has become as taboo as assailing the military once was. Today, it is those who criticize the Gülen movement who get burned,” he remarks. The analyst's argument is, however, strongly opposed to by Michael Thumann, Die Zeit's Middle East bureau chief in ?stanbul.

“The sentence regarding the Gülen movement and its control of the national police is very hard to substantiate. The idea that Gülen is behind [the Ergenekon probe] is preposterous. Nobody can tell to what extent. No single proof. Why should journalists not be interested in those coup plans without being on the payroll of someone?” he asked. Thumann also expressed disapproval of Ça?aptay's opinion of the Taraf daily. In his piece, Ça?aptay said, “Specifically, the officers were charged with authoring a 5,000-page memo that was later published in Taraf, a paper whose editorial policy is singularly dedicated to bashing the military.”

“I am very happy that Taraf exists. It is a good source for us. They cannot disclose their sources, of course, but for me it is a very important source as a foreign journalist here. It is a newspaper accused of being close to the government. [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdo?an was very angry when Taraf called him ‘Pa?as?n?n Ba?bakan?' [The Pasha's Prime Minister]. Ça?aptay is entirely misrepresenting Taraf. Taraf is a newspaper which has driven the political process with its publication. It's important for freedom of the press in Turkey. Some people try to depict Taraf as a supporter of the government; that's a misrepresentation,” Thumann added.

Ça?aptay also accuses “the Gülen-controlled parts” of the judiciary and police of illegally wiretapping those entangled in the Ergenekon case and subsequently leaking details of their intimate lives, such as infidelity, to pro-AK Party and pro-Gülen media in order to damage their reputations. Not surprisingly, the analyst does not point to any evidence to solidify his argument, nor does he mention the wiretapping of prominent figures from various circles by Ergenekon members. A police raid at an ultranationalist newsweekly in 2009 discovered sound recordings of phone conversations of the prime minister, several Cabinet members, journalists and mayors.

Furthermore, the analyst claims that the Gülen movement supported a coalition government led by the now-defunct Welfare Party (RP) in the late 1990s. Sources close to Gülen, however, strongly denied the claim.

Assessing Ça?aptay's writing style, Alper Görmü?, a columnist from the Taraf daily, told Sunday's Zaman that they can see Ça?aptay's fundamental characteristics in this article, too. When asked what he meant, he said Ça?aptay puts forth claims but offers no evidence.

“We know him; it is very natural to see such articles be written in his militant writing style. But it is impossible to understand how a journal like Foreign Policy, which is highly concerned about the level of academic rigor the articles it publishes contain, can run such an article,” Görmü? noted.

Criticizing Foreign Policy's publication policy, Görmü? said it is clear that, following Sept. 11, fast-growing Islamophobia has replaced Americans' cool-headed demeanor. “In the 1960s Turkey had the goal of being a ‘small America.' Following the change in atmosphere that dominated American media and politics after Sept. 11, I wrote in my article that ‘Turkey could not become a small America but America has become a big Turkey.' It seems such a process is continuing in America as such an article managed to be published in Foreign Policy,” Görmü? concluded.

Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic scholar now living in the United States, was voted the world’s top public intellectual in the 20008 FOREIGN POLICY
A modernist Islamic scholar and leader of the movement named after him, Gülen is widely considered one of the most important Muslim thinkers alive today. He has authored more than 60 books.

Fethullah Gulen is a provincial Turkish preacher who has inspired a worldwide network of Muslims who feel at home in the modern world.
Gulen personally met with religious leaders, including Pope John Paul II, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos, and Israeli Sephardic Head Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron.

According to Gülen his theological views lie solidly within the Turkish Sunni mainstream while being more responsive to modern world than other Islamic movements.

Gülen claims the modern world is plagued by individuals' lack of faith, and in particular, the failure to adopt scientific methods while in the same time preserving moral values and belief in God. Gülen argues that faith can be scientifically proven, and that science can benefit from or requires a moral foundation from religion.

He has guided his supporters to open over a thousand educational institutions in more than 90 countries in Europe, Asia Africa and North America.

The Gülen movement consists of volunteer organizations that are ideologically connected under the leadership of Gülen.The predominantly Turkish volunteers, who are educated or have received support from the institutions founded by the movement, run more than a thousand schools all over the world. It has founded universities of its own, an employers' association, unions, and hundreds of sub-organizations, lobby groups, and student bodies. The movement as a whole counts several hundred thousand of members, making it one of the largest Islamic movements in Turkey.

One of the main characteristic of the movement is that it is faith-based but not faith-limited. There are many Christians, even at the community leadership level, in several countries feel themselves close to or inspired by the movement.

In an article in The Economist, the Gülen movement is reported as a Turkish-based movement, which sounds more reasonable than most of its rivals, is vying to be recognized as the world's leading Muslim network . It is also stated that Gülen has also won praise from many non-Muslim quarters, with his stated belief in science, inter-faith dialog and multi-party democracy. He is an intensely emotional preacher, whose tearful sermons seem to strike a deep chord in his listeners; but the movement he heads is remarkably pragmatic and businesslike. As a global force, the Gülenists are especially active in education. A conference staged in London, October 2007 was co-hosted by four British universities, plus the House of Lords, yielded a slick, 750-page report of the proceedings.

Ann Munley, president of Pennsylvania's Marywood University, has stated that "Turkish people establish schools all across the world and show great self-sacrifice in educating people of all races and religions. The Gülen movement considerably contributes to the establishment of these schools."In a recent article titled 'Turkish Schools Offer Pakistan a Gentler Vision of Islam', in New York Times, it is stated that the Turkish schools, which have expanded to seven cities in Pakistan since the first one opened a decade ago, offer an alternative approach that could help reduce the influence of extremism.

Professor Thomas Michel from Georgetown University expressed belief that the Gülen movement is not political in nature.

Doctor B. Jill Carroll of Rice University in Houston, has noted in an Interfaith Voices program, an independent public radio show that promotes interfaith understanding through dialoge, that the Gülen movement has become a global and transnational one:'Gülen has greatly impacted three generations in Turkey. He also influences considerable masses all across the world with his speeches and deeds. He leads a very modest life. Thousands of institutions have been established all around the globe by the Gülen movement, but he doesn’t undertake the administration of even one of them. When people see such aspects of this movement, they say ‘these are not Muslims in words, they are real Muslims' . She also praised Turkish schools, established around the globe with Gülen’s pioneering. 'These schools invest in the future and aim at creating a community that offers equal opportunities for everyone.'

A world-famous Turkish sociologist Nilüfer Göle, known for her studies on modernization and conservatism, classified the Gülen movement and the schools governed by the movement as the world's most global movement. She stated that Turkish schools bring people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds together in peace.

A recent article titled 'A modern Ottoman' says: 'Fethullah Gülen leads a global movement inspired by Sufi ideas. He promotes an open brand of Islamic thought and he is preoccupied with modern science.' It also states, 'He and his movement are at home with technology, markets and multinational business and especially with modern communications and public relations.

Gulen Thoughts on Terrorism
“ A real Muslim cannot be a terrorist”

Gülen does not approve use of Islam and terrorism together. That is, he agrees that such terrorism exists but argues that it is not Islamic or Muslim. He has written an article in response to the September 11 attacks saying:
We condemn in the strongest of terms the latest terrorist attack on the United States of America, and feel the pain of the American people at the bottom of our hearts.

"One of the people in the world I hate the most is [Osama] Bin Laden, because he spoiled the bright appearance of Islam. He created a dirty image. Even if we try to fix that terrible damage with all our best, it would take years.We will tell about it everywhere in different platforms. We will write books about it. We will say, 'this is not Islam.' Bin Laden replaced Islamic logic with his feelings and desires. He is a monster, as are the men around him. If there is any one similar to them, they too are nothing more than monsters."

People defending FG are amazing: In the name of democracy, they seem to be suggesting that illegal phone-tapping, publishing illegally obtained information, publicly persecuting people with unsubstantiated evidence, holding people for over a year without trial, etc., is all acceptable.

Unprejudiced readers may want to check out recordings both of FG and of AKP's prime minister, R T Erdogan, and see exactly what they have said about democracy. e.g. from RTE: "For us, democracy is not an aim, it is a vehicle. We need democracy until we reach our destination. And when we get to our destination, we will alight." and "One cannot be a Moslem and be secular. You are either a Moslem, or you are secular."

Women may be particularly enlightened by listening to FG's vision of the future.

In case there is an argument to suggest that some comments are dated and no longer relevant, the current messages should be enough to allay doubts. Just this week, from a government minister: "a fully independent judiciary is undesirable..." and from RTE (to newspaper proprietors) : "[Newspaper] columnist cannot simply write whatever they like. Their bosses should be saying 'There's no place for you here'."

The best source for such material - evidence, if you will, for those who care to see it - is YouTube, where a simple search can prove all.

Did I mention YouTube is banned here?

It is quite interesting that Mr. Cagaptay writes this article as if there has been no coups in Turkey and these coup arrests are as strange as it would be strange in democratic countries such as the US. The truth is there has been coups in Turkey in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997 and the military personnel always got away with what they have done. This is the first time a series of coup attempts being investigated and prosecuted before they actually happen.

Cagaptay’s one of classical articles without sufficient reference and proof. A researcher is expected to be more proof oriented to be able to make readers believe what he claims.

A one page refutation may be easily written for each paragraph of Cagaptay. I do not want to write about the ERGENEKON case as those who watch it closely know that every arrest and custody is based on evidence. Any simple googling should be enough to learn the truth. However, I will touch upon a few points briefly.

Cagaptay claims that one untouchable" (army) is being replaced with another (Gulen Movement). He further claims anyone who criticizes Gulen Movement is to be burnt. Doesn’t he know that Gulen Movement has always been criticized by all kinds of people, including seculars, some religious groups, politicians and media although majority have appreciated them? More importantly, he claims that Gulen Movement is replacing the army in terms of power and untouchability. Gulen movement is a loose organization with no struggle to have political power. Journalists associated with Gulen Movement are always excluded from army headquarters and programs. They could not overcome even this small problem. I have not so far seen anybody who criticized and got burnt.

Cagaptay argues that Gulen Movement supported Welfare Party, which is completely wrong. Everybody knows that Mr. Gulen criticized Welfare Party leader openly those days.

Cagaptay distorts Gulen trial as well. It is well known that Mr. Gulen was sued after a “cassette conspiracy”. It was not about corruption and anti-secular political activities. Finally he was acquitted.

O question to Cagaptay: if Gulen is a person to change the democracy in a very important Muslim country, Turkey, how America is permitting his stay? Members of this movement has opened schools and institutes in more than 100 countries, which means they have been tested and approved by these many states, intelligence agencies, thousands of families and individuals.

It was unfortunate for a magazine like Foreign Policy to publish such a low quality article while US government is commited to cooperate with the Turkish government to bring peace and prosperity to the Middle East and to the world. I would lke to start my comments by the introduction of Mr. Cagaptay's article:

"All signs point to Fethullah Gülen, whose shadowy Islamist movement is rapidly extending its tentacles into all aspects of Turkish political life." Gulen Movement is not shadowy but transperant and legal in Turkey and all around the world. It is not Islamist either and infact getting criticism from Islamist Movements for not being Islamist. In fact, it is an educational, cultural, economical and philantrophic movement with institions like schools, universities, cultural centers, banks and craitable organizatiions.
All Mr. Cagaptay is trying to do is the twisting the facts to serve the purpose of confusing and misleading the public and intellectuals! Gulen Moevement schools are based on a Western Model with the medium of education in English. They do not have a religiuos curriculum and their students and graduates are among the most successful whereever they are.

US ambassador's view of "a coup plan" conflictts the facts of the investigatipn which showed all the materials and the signatures found were original! Of Course a 5000 page memo is necassary to plan and execute a coup to over throw the govenrment of developed and sophisticated country like Turkey with 80 million population. It is not even enough! Another fact is that all the audio recordings were real and terrible!

Also Ergenekon case is not a convoluted investigation and it is producing results in Turkey for democratization and liberation. Western governments are aware of this fact and supporting the Turkish government including the EU and USA.

Mr. Cagaptay has also tried to use cheap histronics but age, being a grandmother and cancer do not make anyone innocent of being a part of planning of a coup. Everyone in Turkey knows that Turkan Saylan articulated her hatred of the girls who had been trying to complete their higher education with head scarfs although US government has always supported freedom of education for everyone in the world.

Fethullah Gulen himself mentioned several times that he feels like someone is cursing his mother when they call his movement a Gulenist Movement. It is the Gulen Movement not the Gulenist Movement.

Of course the political ground is shifting in Turkey because the left or the right goverments have not produced any results. The three conservative leaders, Menderes, Ozal and Erdogan contibuted to Turkey’s becoming a pro-western and developed Euroasian Country in the most difficult region of the world. It was during the Menderes government Turkish soldiers fought side by side the American soldiers in Korea for freedom and Turkey was the first Muslim Country who recognised Israel. It was during the Ozal government Turkey provied critical support to President Bush and the American army during the Gulf War. And it is the Erdogan Government who is helping the American gorvenment for negotions with Iran and the Middle East.

All Soner Cagaptay is trying to do is to sabotage American governments efforts to establish a model partnership with Turkey under the umbralla of an extreme right wing hawkish so called “think tank”. He has been trying hard to commit defamation of a the Gulen Movement which is trying nothing but contributing to worldwide peace and prosperity . He is not going to be successful!

Gokhan Ozkok NY USA

I know enough Turkey, Gulen and Gulen Movement, Military's position in Turkey and coups had been performed in the past.

Everybody knows what is going on in Turkey even European Union speakers explain their idea about this case with supporting the judiciary system. BUT this writer.

Every body knows about Gulen and Gulen Movement even all over the world people organize conference about this movement and universities opening professional chair for Gulen's name.

Every body knows Gulen's relationship with politicians he says'" I have same proximity for all politic parties." Even RP members knew that and lot of times Gulen criticized this party's ruling term.

Yet, this author has a lot of conflict in his argument;
What is wrong with police and judiciary system when they arrested people who are planning to pull down the government.

5000 pages indictment shows that how serious this case is.

If a country has democratic system which Tutkey has, there is no place for military to act like ruling party.

How can he prove Gulen behind the AKP or that ongoing investigation.

In democracies public let the deputies in to the Parliament and they rule the country not appointed people from coups nor chief of Military nor Supreme Court nor Judge and Prosecutors Higher Commission nor
Council of Higher Education vs. Public and their willing is center of the ruling system.

IS NOT IT?

Mr. Cagaptay once again did not surprise me. What surprizes me however is his post at Yale University. I strongly believe that such a biased/partisan and politically motivated academician has no place as prestigious as Yale Univ..

Anyways, let's get to the article. One of the factual errors in this piece is the assertion that Gulen movement supported the Welfare Party. This is simply not true. In the past, GUlen has went on record, before the postmodern Feb. 28 coup, directly criticizing the Welfare Party for being radical.

Cagaptay says "The military, which opposes the AKP and the Gülenists because it sees itself as the virtual guardian of Turkey's secular polity à la Ataturk's vision, serving as a bulwark against religion's domination over politics and government, has become the primary target of this round of politically motivated arrests."

Perhaps what Cagaptay should also mention is the fact that the military pulled three ("classic") and a half ("postmodern") military coups in Turkey. One who knows this fact, would not be surprised that certain members
of the same military are being arrested for similar activities now. More importantly, the judiciary process is ongoing, anyone who has
respect for the rule of law would wait until independent judges decide whether the allegations in the indictments were grounded or not.
Nevertheless, we cannot expect that from a partisan academician...

http://watch.wliw.org/video/1423934300 (please see after minute 11)

To tell the truth, i haven't known the writer, since i read him first time in this web site, I would expect more reliable clues to blame the movement(such that educational methods, political criticize). But it seems like the writer is also far away from the changes in Turkey, some of the information has been included in the article is not real, for instance capturing important positions in the crucial department of Turkey Republic, this voice is belong to the president of major opposite political party in the TR(Baykal). In any country in the world, the country citizens have the right to apply and get position in any department(underline for "CITIZEN"). So if any turkish person attend the job, everybody should respect him. Until now, most of the these positions has not been able to enter for person even you're citizen of turkish. You should also have strong background secular view and should had have west country life style, now a days (it became stronger with AKP) real citizens are getting the real job. This irritates the White Turks (who actually is not Turk even they have citizenship of TR). The writer citations and sentences is too subjective at this point. if you are side of democracy, you should respect the public.
in modern countries, everybody should be investigated in any dangerous case by the court and it shouldn't be matter who s/he is, even s/he is in military or security department of the country. The ETO, unfortunately, is real and it would do the big EVENTs, if it hadn't been revealed(the documents who insists this idea is real). I disappointed when i saw this article in FP. I would expect more real writing, It's really funny, most of the turkish people who are living other countries believe that that's enough and we really want to get rid of the sedimentation. They have to change their mind and look at around the world, it's changing...

This article is the evidence how Ergenekon is powerful. Ergenekon tried to put guns and bombs in Gulen schools in Erzincan/Turkey. The person behind this is prosecuted and the case is continuing. The Ergenekon members are in key position in government. Their goal is to make Turkey weak so they can control anything and everything in Turkey.

Ergenekon was not able to succed on accusing Gulen and his friends being terrorist. Ergenekon members blame Gulen as being the CIA agent in Turkey on the other hand he was blamed being anti-american.

Ergenekon was not able able accuse Gulen in doing wrong but this article provides evident that they are going to lie just to accuse him and his friend for anything that prevent them creating peace between east and west. Good luck to them in their trial.

The works he has done is shining as SUN to the people who can look at it. No one can reject his work, only the people who close their eyes will not see his work that creates peace in the world.

Gulen Movement is known all over the world as the promoter of the tolerance, education, inter-religionist dialogue. Mr. Cagaptay is uninformed or knows very well but does not accept the truth about this movement. Mr. Gulen was criticized for his meeting with Pope Jean Paul II in Vatican, one of the few Muslims scholars doing this. Mr. Gulen is so welcome worldwide and it is a shame that he is still unaccepted in his country, Turkey, which pretends to be the best democracy among Muslim countries. But there cannot be democracy with the army gun on the head of that democracy! The time of coups in Europe passed from the Gorbachev and Yeltsin time!
Thank you.
Aulon Mehdiu
Albania

They are all indicating the same thoghts of political and religious structure which have been coming from the foundation of Turkish Republic. Gülen is the follower of Said-i Nursi who was one of the serious opponents of secular democratic Turkish Republic. He fought for developing an Islamist and Kurdish state over Turkish Land after the indipendence war of Turkey in 1920s. The most important characteristic of these movements was the hypocrisy against the republic because it is known well that the roots of secular republic is very strong and it is very difficult to demolish such a strong secular state which was founded by Kemal ATATÜRK. The best way of fighting to Turkish republic is behaving like a conservative-democrat and liberal. They have been always talking about peace between religons and more democratic rights. But these are all lies which they use people and the democratic system to develop their real ideas confidentially. So, they have been playing some political games for years to capture the powers of state like the governments, police departments, secular education system, Turkish Jurisdiction System and lawyers, and the Turkish Military. This is a war between Gülen's Islamist and liberal-trade base movement, and Secular, democratic, social-state base Turkish Republic. The powers of these two sides have been fighting for years and the events of recent days are all the strong evidences of this war, may be the last phase of the war which will determine the winner after 90 years fight.

If you want to see and understand what Gulen and his movement think about military coups it is better to read a book which is written by Faruk Mercan who is one of the followers and supporters of Gulen movement. The name of the book is "Fetullah Gülen" and published by Do?an Yay?nc?l?k" in 2008. Especially, on the pages between 100 and 120, you can see how supporter Gülen was to the 1980 coup of September 12 in Turkey. He is one of the foremost supporters of such a military coup and he praises to military and its generals who were the leaders of that coup in 1980. These are the realities of nowadays' issues and views...

We, Turkish people, really know what is going on in Turkey....

this article is very biased against gulen. cagatay clearly cannot understand where Turkey is leading and misreads Turkey and current affairs. he sounds more of in favour of millitary intervention to state affairs. he is a very millitarist writer. however, he cannot see the fact that such ideas as he develops are very stale and date back to very time of world war ii. he justifies coup de tat for the sake of preserving the state. his ideas are quite superficial and lacks rational backgroud.

Frankly, I am not surprised by Mr. Cagatay's article. It seems to me that Mr. Cagatay has been consistently and relentlessly trying to spread a negative image about Gulen Movement and also AKP. Many claims mentioned in the article proved incorrect by Turkish court decisions as mentioned at the end of the article itself. It is true that Gulen movement is extending not only in Turkey but also in the world. What Mr. Cagatay do not like to see is that the movement has no political ambition. It is rather a social movement with an Islamic background. I am not sure what part bothers Mr. Cagatay the most: being a social movement or having an Islamic background?...

Maybe it does not worth to respond to an article with full of intentional mistakes, but I have listed a few of them below to show Mr. Cagatay's ill intentions:

1. Mr. Cagatay states: "Among other things, the memo stated that the Turkish military was planning to bomb Istanbul's historic mosques and shoot down its own planes to justify a coup." In reality, there is no such a claim that Turkish military was planning such and such. Mr. Cagatay is presenting the gang that is well organized in the military as the Turkish military. They are clearly different...

2. You may or may not buy the following argument: "When I asked a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey for his views on the news, he thought the scenario was ridiculous. 'If the Turkish military was going to do a coup, they would not be writing a 5,000-page memo about it,' he stated." Should the memo be 50 pages, for example?

3. He states that: "Three days later, the former commanders of the navy and air force were released -- further proof that the government's intention was to intimidate Turkey's military, rather than proceed with an indictment against these high-ranking officials." Mr. Cagatay definitely knows that not the government, but only the courts can arrest and release people.

4. He states that: "Criticizing the Gülen movement, which controls the national police and its powerful domestic intelligence branch, and which exerts increasing influence in the judiciary, has become as taboo as assailing the military once was. Today, it is those who criticize the Gülen movement who get burned." These claims including the one that Gulen Movement controls the national police are proved incorrect by the Turkish courts after a long trial period and Gulen was acquitted unanimously by the court. Mr. Cagatay, after this vague and big claim, does not provide even a single example for it. As a person who continuously reading about Turkish political dynamics, I know that there is no even a single incident support his
claims. I would be glad if he exemplifies a case in which someone got burned due to his critics of the movement.

5. He states that: "Zekeriya Oz, the chief prosecutor leading the Ergenekon case, and Ramazan Akyurek, the head of the police's domestic intelligence branch, as well as other powerful people in the police, are thought by some to be Gülen sympathizers." As Mr. Cagatay mentions them by name, you would expect that he knows the case in detail. In reality, Ramazan Akyurek has taken from the office far ago. He sued this action of the government and won the case but has not turned back to the office. Mr. Cagatay should answer why "government under influence of Gulen Movement" take Mr. Akyurek, "a sympathizer of Gulen", from the office? Unfortunately all claims of Mr. Cagatay in the article are as correct as Mr. Akyurek's being the head of the police's domestic intelligence branch!...

6. He states: "Although some of the people interrogated and arrested might have been involved in criminal wrongdoing, most appear to be innocent." Mr. Cagatay seems to be overlooking the case. Turkish military had three military coups and in the first one, the prime minister, Adnan Menderes, was hanged in 1960. In this recent one, it is claimed that the Ergenekon gang, organized in the Turkish military, was planning to bomb Istanbul's historic mosques and shoot down its own planes to justify a coup. Those are serious crimes. Mr. Cagatay was a little too fast to declare their innocence without any court decision. I was wondering how many pages of the thousands-pages of evidence Mr. Cagatay has reviewed before stating that "most appear to be innocent."

7. His claim of "The Gülen-controlled parts of the judiciary and police have also wielded illegal wiretaps against those entangled in the Ergenekon case, leaking intimate details of their private lives, such as marital infidelity, to pro-AKP and pro-Gülen media in order to damage their reputations." likely makes Mr. Cagatay legally responsible before the laws. In contrast, it is actually claimed that the leakage is due to the internal conflicts of the Ergenekon gangs. Such news always appear on the internet news media before used by other media organizations in Turkey.

8. He states: "Because of Ergenekon, Turks who oppose the AKP and the Gülen movement fear to speak their minds freely. If you have doubts, call a friend in Turkey and ask for an opinion of the case. Your friend will respond with details of the weather." I would urge the same from the readers of the article if they can. I would be surprised if they can find one persons who hesitate to talk about the case.

9. He states: "Gülen espoused a Machiavellian approach to democracy, saying to his followers in a message broadcast on Turkish TV in 1999 that "every method and path is acceptable [including] lying to people." Mr. Gulen was unanimously acquired from all such accusation. It is interesting that Mr. Cagatay using the claims proved incorrect by the court decisions to support his case. More interestingly, it took my attention that Mr. Cagatay is quoting a distorted version of the claim. You can find the part "[including] lying" nowhere else but only in this article by Mr. Cagatay. It would be more appropriate if he provide a reference for this statement, if any.

10. He states: "The clash between the Islamist Welfare Party (RP) government, which was supported by the FHG, and the military was at the center of this conflict." It is very well known by serious political scientists that Gulen Movement has always had reserve to the RP. Mr Cagatay's statement indicates his knowledge about the case and also the validity of his comments and interpretations.

11. He states at the end of the article that "When the Turkish courts charged Gülen with corruption and anti-secular political activities in 1999, he fled to a rural compound in Pennsylvania. Although he was later acquitted, Gülen has never returned to Turkey." Mr. Gulen unanimously acquitted by the court from all accusations mentioned earlier in the article. Mr. Cagatay should do more research on Gulen's biography as it is well known that Mr. Gulen has never been charged with any of his activities throughout his life. It is also known that Mr. Gulen came to US before the case against him was filed, due to the health problems.

He close the article stating that "Turkey is taking a dangerously authoritarian turn." This turn is actually perceived as a late democratic turn by a great majority of the Turks in Turkey and outside.

Only 10 years ago there was not a term of otherization among the community. There was not a debate on neighborhood among Turkisk community. However, in ten years period AKP and Gülen Movement have caused to debate on these issues. Because AKP followers, even the primeminister and the government, have been talking on "we" and "they" when describing something or some events. A lot of people have fears to criticize the policies in Turkey, today. They are afraid of being arrested by police and sentenced to the jail. This is a real fear, nobody can understand this fear if they do not live in Turkey and blamed as the "other" by government people. Gülen's movement have brought into Turkey the fear, the otherization, and pressure from the power...

We have a primeminister who gives the caricaturists to court everytime when they draw a political criticism. We have a primeminister who has threated the journalists just two days ago because of their political opponent writings. The prime minister has directly threaten the media patrons that they should have fired the political opponent writers from their job.

Is this a democratic republic view? Is this the thing that Gülen Movement want to do?

For days, hundreds of TEKEL Workers have been fighting for their jobs and human rights. But any of this movement have talked about this issue. Some of the workers have already died during these struggles for rights. I am sure some of the guys living in US or other countries, even in Turkey still are thinking about these workers' struggle as a part of ERGENEKON, ha!... I am sure they have never gone to the tents of those workers and talk them about why they have been continuing such kind of struggle, when you talk with these workers you can understand what is democratic rights or not... Gülen's movement is a kind of movement which tries to construct a single type of man who obeys only the rules of the leaders. This was tried to be done by the 1980 coup and its leaders following the coup but they could not be successfull. Gulen movement will not be successfull to produce a similar kind of man type as its ancestors. This struggle is not between the army and AKP, or army and the Gülen movement.

Turkish people are aware of what a military coup means because we are the victims of such a coup of 1980. Nobody can understand better than us what a coup means, what did coup do to the real intellectuals of this country. We all lived the tortures of a real coup not a paer-based, fiction coup. My family, my friends all lived the dark days of the coup's prisons taht we have never forgot.

We are strongly and for ever against the military courp but we are also against the Gülen movement's courp. We really want a democratic country who can tell his own ideas without any fear, who can feel his or herself as an individual not a member of a military coup or religous community. We all believe in God but this is our own belief and we do not want other people to manage our beliefs and thoughts. I hope everybody will see one day the real democracy and the human rights and we will get rid of all these silly and fictious agenda. We have got more serious agendas such as powerty, insufficient resources, and inequitable distribution of these resources . W

Only 10 years ago there was not a term of otherization among the community. There was not a debate on neighborhood among Turkisk community. However, in ten years period AKP and Gülen Movement have caused to debate on these issues. Because AKP followers, even the primeminister and the government, have been talking on "we" and "they" when describing something or some events. A lot of people have fears to criticize the policies in Turkey, today. They are afraid of being arrested by police and sentenced to the jail. This is a real fear, nobody can understand this fear if they do not live in Turkey and blamed as the "other" by government people. Gülen's movement have brought into Turkey the fear, the otherization, and pressure from the power...

We have a primeminister who gives the caricaturists to court everytime when they draw a political criticism. We have a primeminister who has threated the journalists just two days ago because of their political opponent writings. The prime minister has directly threaten the media patrons that they should have fired the political opponent writers from their job.

Is this a democratic republic view? Is this the thing that Gülen Movement want to do?

For days, hundreds of TEKEL Workers have been fighting for their jobs and human rights. But any of this movement have talked about this issue. Some of the workers have already died during these struggles for rights. I am sure some of the guys living in US or other countries, even in Turkey still are thinking about these workers' struggle as a part of ERGENEKON, ha!... I am sure they have never gone to the tents of those workers and talk them about why they have been continuing such kind of struggle, when you talk with these workers you can understand what is democratic rights or not... Gülen's movement is a kind of movement which tries to construct a single type of man who obeys only the rules of the leaders. This was tried to be done by the 1980 coup and its leaders following the coup but they could not be successfull. Gulen movement will not be successfull to produce a similar kind of man type as its ancestors. This struggle is not between the army and AKP, or army and the Gülen movement.

Turkish people are aware of what a military coup means because we are the victims of such a coup of 1980. Nobody can understand better than us what a coup means, what did coup do to the real intellectuals of this country. We all lived the tortures of a real coup not a paer-based, fiction coup. My family, my friends all lived the dark days of the coup's prisons taht we have never forgot.

We are strongly and for ever against the military courp but we are also against the Gülen movement's courp. We really want a democratic country who can tell his own ideas without any fear, who can feel his or herself as an individual not a member of a military coup or religous community. We all believe in God but this is our own belief and we do not want other people to manage our beliefs and thoughts. I hope everybody will see one day the real democracy and the human rights and we will get rid of all these silly and fictious agenda. We have got more serious agendas such as powerty, insufficient resources, and inequitable distribution of these resources . W

Only 10 years ago there was not a term of otherization among the community. There was not a debate on neighborhood among Turkisk community. However, in ten years period AKP and Gülen Movement have caused to debate on these issues. Because AKP followers, even the primeminister and the government, have been talking on "we" and "they" when describing something or some events. A lot of people have fears to criticize the policies in Turkey, today. They are afraid of being arrested by police and sentenced to the jail. This is a real fear, nobody can understand this fear if they do not live in Turkey and blamed as the "other" by government people. Gülen's movement have brought into Turkey the fear, the otherization, and pressure from the power...

We have a primeminister who gives the caricaturists to court everytime when they draw a political criticism. We have a primeminister who has threated the journalists just two days ago because of their political opponent writings. The prime minister has directly threaten the media patrons that they should have fired the political opponent writers from their job.

Is this a democratic republic view? Is this the thing that Gülen Movement want to do?

For days, hundreds of TEKEL Workers have been fighting for their jobs and human rights. But any of this movement have talked about this issue. Some of the workers have already died during these struggles for rights. I am sure some of the guys living in US or other countries, even in Turkey still are thinking about these workers' struggle as a part of ERGENEKON, ha!... I am sure they have never gone to the tents of those workers and talk them about why they have been continuing such kind of struggle, when you talk with these workers you can understand what is democratic rights or not... Gülen's movement is a kind of movement which tries to construct a single type of man who obeys only the rules of the leaders. This was tried to be done by the 1980 coup and its leaders following the coup but they could not be successfull. Gulen movement will not be successfull to produce a similar kind of man type as its ancestors. This struggle is not between the army and AKP, or army and the Gülen movement.

Turkish people are aware of what a military coup means because we are the victims of such a coup of 1980. Nobody can understand better than us what a coup means, what did coup do to the real intellectuals of this country. We all lived the tortures of a real coup not a paer-based, fiction coup. My family, my friends all lived the dark days of the coup's prisons taht we have never forgot.

We are strongly and for ever against the military courp but we are also against the Gülen movement's courp. We really want a democratic country who can tell his own ideas without any fear, who can feel his or herself as an individual not a member of a military coup or religous community. We all believe in God but this is our own belief and we do not want other people to manage our beliefs and thoughts. I hope everybody will see one day the real democracy and the human rights and we will get rid of all these silly and fictious agenda. We have got more serious agendas such as powerty, insufficient resources, and inequitable distribution of these resources . W

It is very dissappointing to see these one sided, low profile articles written about Fethullah Gulen Hocaefendi, who has served his whole life for peace, dialogue and the commonwealth of the all human beings. Whoever reads his books, meets or listens to him can easily understand that his only purpose is to get people from different culture and religions together under one roof, and share what they have in common to have peace in the world.
But unfortunately Soner is trying to blame him with his own ideas rather than
pointing out any proof and evidence. AND these questions comes to our minds? Who or What is behind Soner Cagaptay? It seems soneone behind him, gives him the orders to write these kind of nonsense things , just to mislead the Ergenekon case that is still going on in Turkey.......

Here is what is happening in Turkey in a nutshell.

Periphery this happens to be the majority of Turkish people wants a more democratic, open and wealthy society. The minority who were enjoying the privileges of militarian-authoritarian-kemalist regime since the emergence of Turkish republic is resissting this change. This creates a tension between periphery and center. To not lose their priviledges, this minority is ready to use every available means, including coup. Even though they are minority in the society, they are majority in military, judiciary. Therefore they deem such an action possible. Turkey has witnessed 6 coup de'tat since its establishment.

Unfortunately in Turkey military sees itself as the protector of secularism and, and, they see the society as continuous threat against secular foundations of Turkey. In other words they treat society as a child who will never mature and can not determine its own way. They know what is good good for you better than you. This pathological attitude is indoctrinated to the brains of military personnel,.Thus this Jacobin attitude provides a grounding for military intervention.

Clearly such a pathologic action must be rationalized and legitimized before its implementation. Therefore before any coup, they first prepare the grounding for military intervention. They create chaos first, then appear to settle it. And we fell grateful to them for bringing security. They first create the threat, then pretend to solve it. Within this vicious circle they enjoy the fulfillment of their superiority complex, and protection of economical and social status.

They are also smart enough to disguise this as an attempt to protect secularist foundations of Turkey; as they did myriad times and precluded social, political and cultural flourishment of the Turkish society. And they developed a discourse to mask their real face, and what is strange to me is that someone like Cagatay is buying this cheap tactic, and voicing it in a magazine like FP.

Last time to create a grounding for such an action , they plotted coup plans as they did many times thorughout Turkish Republic's history. Myriad evidences were found showing that military indeed planned a coup de'tat in 2002 and 2003. So the generals who were then and who are now at the top of army were arrested. It is as simple as this is.

I believe a close scrutiny of Turkish society will reveal the fact that Turkey is not going towards a theocratic state. It is true that Sunni muslims, alevites, christian-jewish minority, syriacs are asking for more religious freedom, kurdish people is asking for more freedom to voice their national indentity.
without fear of being insulted. But they are also asking for economic, cultural, intellectual flourishment which is unlikely to happen in a tightly controlled theocratic state, and they are aware of this fact. They would not switch one closed society for another one.

Turkey is trying write a story which has never been written before. Turkey is trying to harmonize religious, secularist, democratic tendencies. It is unlikely that Turkey will give any of these fundamental premises. The only way leading towards a better Turkey is to produce a successful synthesis of these proclivities. There is still much to do as it pertains to theoretical and practical aspects of this synthesis. But one thing is for sure; the Gulen movement as Turkey's -may be Islamic world's- leading religious transnational civic society phenomenon is standing as a great chance to achieve such a successful synthesis of these tendencies. Because it emphasizes tolerance, dialogue, education, democracy, and liberalism as well as religious commitments.

Cagatay's article departing from a discourse which is developed within an over-nationalistic and over-militant context, is not trying to understand this new faith based, civic, tolerant, open-to-dialogue phenomenon, but capture the audience. This is not a scholarly attitude.

I am really disappointed by this article since it doesn't really reflect the truth about the situation in Turkey and about Mr. Gulen. One would think a scholar like Mr. Cagaptay would do his research on such an important subject before writing this article. Well, one would be wrong! Mr. Cagaptay not only disdorts the truth of Ergenekon but he unjustly offends and blames Mr. Gulen and his followers for being behind of the big trial. Mr. Cagaptay should do his homework both about the Gulen movement, in which case he will see that Mr. Gulen has stayed strictly out of politics and he can never be called a radical Islamist , and about the Ergenekon trial itself. I find this article misinforming, distorting the truth, falsely blaming and trying to change the tone of the trial.

I am also disapointed by the FP magazine for publishing such a wrongful and biased article. FP should know better than what is said in this article about Mr. Gulen since it was by FP that he was chosen to be the number one Intellectual of the last 100 years and also FP interviewed him exclusively. I think FP should give a chance to Gulen followers to respond to the accusations in Cagaptay's article by publishing their response. The readers should be well informed.

I am a political science student. It is openly presented in this article that most of the comments made in the article are nothing but conspiracy theories. The article mentions that 76 year old woman that was arrested should not be guilty according to the article but her guilt was proven. On the other hand the article does not provide any information that Zekeriya Oz, the chief prosecutor leading the Ergenekon case, or Ramazan Akyurek, the head of the police's domestic intelligence branch has any relation to Fetullah Gulen. The article just states that they are thought to be Gulen sympathizers. This is a accusation to both the high official's of Turkey and of Fetullah Gulen. Lets say that these people were really sympathizers, there is no proof of Fetullah Gulen telling these officials to especially search for Ergenekon. I believe that these people are just doing there jobs and trying to make Turkey a better country to live in. This article is just a conspiracy theory like what some people say in America " CIA shot Kennedy." This is a really world and you can not come up with conspiracy theories and just present it to people. I believe that Foreign Policy should immediately remove this article from their data base or they would be known for their conspiracies from now on, not their truths. I read Turkish newspapers everyday and this is my first time seeing a person trying to relate the arrests of Turkey to Fetullah Gulen. It just does not make sense. I say either come up with real proof or do not talk at all.

The article has already being translated to Turkish and published in some media, and disseminated among the internet in Turkey. It is very important to see that Foreign Policy is an objective publication. Thank you for this important article.
I attended to Gülen Movements some organizations and especially to the Friday meetings. In Eskisehir, more than a few years ago when I attended a Friday meeting of these groups they were debating about taking some precautions for the girls who were wearing mini skirts and walk on the street. They were really angry with the girls who were wearing such kind of skirts and clothes. This was only one of the important clues about their real thoughts on liberalism, democracy, and human rights. As it is seen from the comments on this article, people can not stand an opponent idea or view, even some of the commenters can say to ban this article from the web site of the publication. This is what they think in real. They can not stand any idea which does not reflect their thoughts and ideals. There is only one reality for them, that is the thoughts of their leader. There are serious corruptions in Turkey such as DENIZ FENERI case and they are not talking about these corruptions, even they defend them. If you are from their belief and on the way they walk, you can do everything, even the illegal issues and corruptions. But if you write or talk any word which is opponent to their beliefs and ideals, you are guilty. So, you can not write your ideas or thoughts. Can you imagine, they are trying to ban this article from Foreign Policy even. What do you think they are doing now in Turkey? Can you imagine the level of neighborhood pressure on laypeople in Turkey? These are not fiction, these are all reality for the Turkey and Turkey is really being directed to an oppressive future, but not a more democratic future.

Thank you very much for Mr. Cagaptay's article.

I think this article incredible ignorant article which is written by one of a supporter of the Ergenekon
Because, when you read his another articles, you will see his biased articles.
He wrote many times in Hurriyet Daily News, which is Mr, Dogan's Newspaper.

Mr Dogan is also a member of the Ergenekon. This article obviously is understandable why written by Mr Cagaptay. He have to advocate his boss, which show his groundless lie.

My advice is that we do not want this kind of columnist on the prestigious and important newspapers, magazines.

I am not member of anything, I am writing objectively.

Just as a PhD student, evaluating every aspect of events logically.

I have been following the articles and the speeches of Mr Gulen for the last 10 years, I never came accross to a statement where he supports a political group or idea. Context of his teachings are not political at all.
I think Mr Cagaptay did not have a chance to read Mr Gulen's publications.
I would like FP magazine to clarify the misinformation given in Mr Cagaptay's article by publishing reliable articles which reflect Gulen's ideals.
Regards.

YouTube has been banned in Turkey because of clips that allegedly insult the country's founder. The "independent" courts have denied access to YouTube. We know that the same courts banned Muslim religious dress for Women as if dress is an obstacle before advancement and modernity!

'''In 2008, Turkey ranked second after Russia in the list of countries with the largest number of human rights violation cases open at the European Court of Human Rights, with 9,000 cases pending as of August 2008.'

Some things needs to change in Turkey and Turkey's coup arrests are a BEGINNING for a more democratic country!

fetullah gulen is a real danger for Turkey for sure. I remember a student while i was attending law school in Izmir, Turkey, in 1991. This boy said that his master was fetullah gulen hodjaefendi and they were planning to hold and capture wholeTurkish government at most in 20 years. He also asked me if i joined to them. He is a prosecutor now. So everything is clear today. Mr. Cagatay, thank you very much for your braveheart.

I think you live on another planet otherwise you would know that even Turkey's prime minister's wife can NOT attend a university to get education like all religious women or work at a state institution -including all kinds of schools, courts and hospitals. She could not even visit a patient at the famous GATA hospital because of the way she dresses!! Now, see who lives where!

Mr Cagatay says the Gulenists are untouchables. It is not true, there is too much pressure on people who are Gulen sympathizans, there is to much pressure on Muslims in Turkey. Mr Cagatay claims that AKP goverment is arresting the people who are opposition to the AKP government. Its is actually just the opposite, AKP is tried to be closed in about a year ago. Same courts banned Muslim religious dress in Turkey. If AKP was that powerful, they might change the laws and protect themselves, also let the Muslim dress be freely worn everywhere. How can Soner Cagatay find ground as an academic to defend the criminals that are plotting the killing of people in order to create chaos in a country which would further lead to a military coup which could only happen in the 21st century in the "banana republics" Mr Cagatay seriously distorts realities surrounding the ongoing Ergenekon probe. The conspiracy theories Mr. Cagaptay repeats about the Gülen movement are really based on fabrications and lies, blanket accusations without any evidence, mind reading and disrespect for the judicial process in Turkey.
As a conclusion I can easily say that this article is based upon lies.

Daily life is getting worse day by day because of the fear of Gülenists' pressure on the daily life habits of Turkish Secular people. In Turkey young boys are beaten by Islamists because of long hairs and wearing earing, young girls are beaten because of not wearing head scarfs, only a few days ago three young teachers (girls) were taken out from their rental houses because of drinking alcohol (the news was on the Turkish media). Only a few days ago, an important CEO of an alcholic drink firm in Turkey was complaining to the newspapers about the pressure on the shops and markets which were selling alcholic bavareges, and he added that a lot of such kind of shops have been closed because of this pressure. Day by day the pressure on the daily life of laypeople is expanding and the intensity of this pressure is growing either. The Gülenists and the followers have been trying to establish "A Kingdom of Fear" in Turkey. Nobody wants to talk eachother, nobody wants to talk with telephone because of the fear to be caught by police and sentenced. There are many people still in jails without knowing their crime. There were people who lost their lives before learning their guilt in prisons. Many people have already lost their physical and mental health in prison and they still have not learn for what they have been blamed by. The view has evoken the memories of NAZI's times from Germany. The events have rea??y great similarities with those years' events in terms of fascist approaches. If the secular Turkish Republic will disappear or demolished, nobody will rescue and we will all be trapped under the debris of a demolished state.

I am deeply disappointed to see Foreign Policy is publishing such a politically biased article. It definitely lacks the coherence and the non partisan approach one should expect to see in such a world renowned magazine.

This is yet another vicious attempt, from Mr. Cagaptay to demonize the current government and its policies by twisting the historical facts. It really smells as part of an orchestrated effort to protect the status quo in Turkey which only serves the interests of some elitists who see themselves as the real owner of the country and for them any threat to that position should be destroyed by any means, justifiable or not. These include 3 coup d'états, in 1960, 1971 and 1980 which toppled the governments of the time with severe economic and political consequences. ( one of which lead to hanging the prime minister Adnan Menderes in 1960)

If you are not knowledgeable about the contemporary Turkish politics and the recent history of Turkey , you might be tempted to think, after reading this article , Turkey had always been a true democracy prior to AKP administration where the rule of law had prevailed, the organs of the government had been in concert with each other and the beloved military had done nothing but to protect the country from enemies abroad and now all of a sudden, the current government has shifted the foundations of Turkey towards a Islamic theocracy with its hidden agenda and FGH “Fethullah Gulen Movement” is its main collaborator and they are taking their vengeance on the military.

Nothing could have been far from the truth. Let me ask the following questions to the author. I hope he can answer with sincerity.

1- In which democratic Western county, can a coup plot in this scale go by without criminal investigation and punishment? Can you imagine in USA , some members of the military plots a coup to topple the OBAMA administration and they are greeted with flowers?
2- Where in the world, in a democracy an army intervenes in politics like the way in Turkey? Consider Joint Chief of Staff of Us Army making comments about daily political developments. How is that possible?
3- The author preaches about the illegality of the wiretappings. What about the content and the substance of this recordings Mr. Cagaptay, were they fairy tales?
4- What is your evidence that FGH supported the RP government? Any statement from Gulen or his followers?

How ironic it is academicians in the west like Fareed Zakaria, Reza Aslan and Vali Nasr are writing papers and books in favor of AKP and Gulen Movement and Mr. Cagaptay who is of Turkish origin attacks viciously like this.. Shame on you Mr.Cagaptay. I hope you will one day get the attention you crave for by writing this kind of articles. At the end “controversy sells”.

And one word to the editors of Foreign Policy. Articles like this, really undermines the credibility of your magazine. I have now serious doubts in my mind about the subjects that I have shaped my opinion upon by reading this magazine.( Subjects that I am less knowledgeable of), I will be more careful from now on.

For those who follow the Turkish Politics closely, the arguments in the article are nothing but boring. The author's allegations against Mr. Gulen has been floating around since early 80's, the days when Turkish General were in full power, but even than none of these allegations have been proved. There was even an official case against him in the Turkish Courts in early 2000s and Mr. Gulen was acquitted from all charges the writer is bringing up in his works again and again.
Mr. Gulen has been in the public eye for almost 50 years. He gave sermons to thousands and thousands, published tens of books, records of his seminars and sermons are available all over the world, yet there is no prove of so called “secret agenda”. 99% of Mr. Gulen’s work is related to human spirituality or daily aspects of the Islamic life. There is a website now broadcasting his speeches weekly and he did not say a single word about what is going on in Turkey for I do not know how long, but rather he keeps putting more and more importance on subjects such as peace, tolerance, understanding, personal development and self discipline.

My recommendations….
To the writer; GET REAL…
To the reader; use some academic sources if you are curious about Mr. Gulen and the movement.

And a last word to FP editors: ??..!! What were you thinking when you decided to publish this “thing” ??..!! Shame on you FP.

Oh by the way Atilla Jenghiz: You rock buddy…….

though Cagaptay he claims to be alewi he is actually Jewish. (which is ok, there is nothing wrong with that). what is wrong about Cagaptay is his desire to conceal it, then again he is backed by the anti-Turkish, extreme-right wing of the Israeli politics.

One of those articles without any academic content and any reference to objective analysis of Ergenekon case or the Gulen Movement. The article bases itself on the writer’s one-sided argumentation without giving any reliable facts.
First of all, the arguments are no different from the previous ones. In that sense, it does not provide any interesting comments that analyze the allegedly political movement (The Gulen Movement) and the Turkish army, which has the full support from all segments of Turkish society including the movement, but still not being fully critiqued for some planned actions toward the Turkish politics. Turkish army is one institution that every single citizen of Turkey would supports with full heart and commits himself/herself to make it better. However, the author misleads the readers by blaming the movement for trying to put down the army. He does not differentiate between those who planned a coup and those who are really serving the army. We need to see the fact that those who made all the plans are not the representatives of the army, but a group of generals in critical positions.
Secondly, the article states that the movement controls the police and the national intelligence branch, but it does not provide any resources to be able to understand full spectrum of the ideas being presented.
Lastly, I have to state that Mr. Gulen was acquitted from the “so-called” political intentions because no evidence of the accusations was found. Also, the quote taken from one of his speeches has been partly provided in the article, which actually relates to a different topic. Therefore, I invite the author to be more realistic and objective in his explanations. It seems he looks at the Turkish media from one side only which makes him questionable. For a better understanding of the Ergenekon case the Gulen Movement, I invite him to be more dedicated in research and analysis.

If I didn’t do an extensive research on Turkey, and live there for a while, Mr. Cagaptay ,with this article, could easily give me a completely wrong idea about Turkey and Gulen movement. It is unfortunate to see that Mr. Cagaptay is one of those people in DC we listen to get an insight for what is going on in Turkey, but after this article, I have to go back to his past articles and double check everything he said, because this time I caught him presenting his ideas as absolute facts. I don’t have time right now to write another article just to show some samples of misleading statements he makes paragraph by paragraph, but what really surprises me is how the editor could not catch them. Without going through all those academic terminology, I can easily say in brief;
“Since Europe has a lot of experience with Glodio kind of organizations and knows exactly what is going on in Turkey, members of Ergenekon couldn’t get support from EU. Therefore, they asked their friends in DC for help, and I think that is what exactly Mr. Cagaptay is trying to do.”

Max, a friend of mine, asked me what "Gulenist media" means and if there is such a list. Is FP a member of Gulenist media?
I have to pass this question to Mr. Cagaptay.

Max has a really unique sense of humor, here is what he learned from this article.

A new method to support a idea: "write sentences including "thought by some""
for example;
1. Mr. Cagaptay is thought by some to be ...
2. It is thought by some that Mr. Cagaptay is getting paid for ...
3. It is thought by some that Mr. Cagaptay wrote this article upon a request from ...

how come FP give place to someone who has no even a tiny opinion in his mind..his article exactly absolutley biased, one-sided.. the names he talks about, such as turkan saylan, mehmet haberal, kemal guruz and the others, are supported by the army..fethullah gulen movement shows reaction against any anti-democratic institutions, and this is bothering soner..the only problem is soner not to like democracy..so the ruler party and his supporter's to be muslim is just a pretext to use against democrats....
soner you have nothing to say to be taken serious..

Mr. Cagaptay shows just only one piece of photo in almost all 'determinations' of him.
-I've studied 5 years in college (it was biologic science based school) in Turkey- I've witnessed more than 20 times of different professors were talking about AKP and even religious people- freeing their mind. (none of them were relevant to the study course btw)
- My observation in Turkey was in fact religious people are under a lot of pressure, my religious classmates in college were practicing their prayings secretly because of some faculties wouldn't know that. Why some faculty should interested about students beliefs? Weird, huh?
- I don't know about the 'Ergenekon' case so much, but if it is in the court right now, why Mr. Cagaptay worries so much about that. Isn't this article considered as sort of intervention to the ongoing case?
- Mr. Cagaptay says FGH controls some government bodies etc, are those claims based on some evidence? If Mr. Cagaptay has some evidence or even some suspicions about those issue why he doesn't share them with security officials? As I know it's illegal to control, or leak into police organs.
- There are a lot more points that I have objections, must of them have already been covered or I don't have a time to write all of them.

In brief, I would say it's one-sided article far from reality.

I don't understand the position of Foreign Policy which has allowed the publication of an article which doesn't provide the view of the accused party. Rejecting this basic rule of journalism, FP isn't less accountable for the protests of this article.

Mr. Soner Cagaptay is a senior fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Research means "the search for knowledge or any systematic investigation to establish facts." (wikipedia).

Let's take a look at the article that Mr. Cagaptay wrote and decide whether it is an unbiased scholar's article or not.

In the article he says that "When I asked a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey for his views on the news, he thought the scenario was ridiculous. "If the Turkish military was going to do a coup, they would not be writing a 5,000-page memo about it," he stated." Who is this ambassador? Is he still representing the US? While US State Department is seeing this process as normalization why Mr. Cagaptay talks to that ambassador?

He says in the article that "But the truth is that Turkey has replaced one "untouchable" organization for another, more dangerous, one." That is interesting claim. He doesn't even realizes that he contradicts with himself. What kind of untouchable person is Gulen who can not even go back to his own country?

Another claim without any scientific evidence in the article is "Criticizing the Gülen movement, which controls the national police and its powerful domestic intelligence branch, and which exerts increasing influence in the judiciary, has become as taboo as assailing the military once was. Today, it is those who criticize the Gülen movement who get burned." This is really big accusation. One need to have at least some evidence to be able to claim that. Mr. Cagaptay you should not just use gossips to put in your article if you want to be good scholar. If you have any evidence you have to share them with us.

"The clash between the Islamist Welfare Party (RP) government, which was supported by the FHG, and the military was at the center of this conflict." Interestingly most scholars who are experts in political history says that Gulen Movement was criticized by Islamist Welfare Party (RP) supporters at that time for not being supportive to RP.

Mr. Cagaptay you need to read and follow whatever articles were written in this area before writing about it. This is the first rule if you want to become a good scholar.

If some one reads your so called "article" they would think that the Ergenekon case is about innocent military personnels. But you are trying to hide that there were a lot of guns, bombs, assassination plans, plans to kill minorities, plans to kill thousands of innocent people.

As a scholar I would suggest you that you should put all informations to be able to write an unbiased article.

Lastly, it's a great disappointment for me to see this kind of low quality, biased, and poorly written article in FP. I will think about my subscription. I don't want to pay money to read this type of garbage.

Thanks,

Dr.Baker.

It is unbelievable that Author is not aware of the fact that Military intervention with the comprehensive planned took place in 1980. They write 5000- page memo. Because there are four direct and indirect intervention experienced in last forty years in Turkey and none of the Generals, responsible from brutal military interventions, is prosecuted: instead, they were honored by giving their names to schools and streets of Turkey. By quoting former U.S ambassador`s sentence about the coup attempt, Author thinks that he finds an evidence to support his pre-determined mindset. This is not a scholarly approach. Given Author`s well established background about Turkish political history, I have to assume that this article is clear and deliberate distortion of facts.

Man, forget about this article being academic or not. Just look at these sentences by Cagaptay.

"For the last several decades, the Turkish military was untouchable; no one dared to criticize the military or its top generals, lest they risk getting burned"

Is this called democracy? What kind of mentality is this. So Turkish military officials, generals can do whatever they want to, thinking that, there is no such authority can question them for what they are doing. Where is the supremacy of law? Are they the sultans of the Turkey? I thought we became Republic in 1923.

"Although some of the people interrogated and arrested might have been involved in criminal wrongdoing, most appear to be innocent"

Appear to innocent? What do yo mean? How do you know? It's of course prosecutors' job to find that out. Why don't you want prosecutors do their job?

Well Mr Cagaptay.. Welcome to the new Turkey: If you listen carefully, you can hear the sounds of democracy being emerged in Turkey.

Best regards,
Devrim Dogan

Over 170 comments so far, most against the article, almost all with same line of arguments, almost exact same wording. Someone sells it, they buy it without any questions.

From the attention this article got, one would think Foreign Policy is the most read journal in Turkey, maybe it is, thanks to mission of following Soner Cagaptay where ever he goes, where ever he writes. His sin, writing things these guys cannot stand to hear, as if their claims, their line of arguments, their distorted logic is much better than the one they try to defame.

Since anyone that writes this kind of stuff has to follow an hidden agenda, very much unlike these guys most of whom are probably followers of FG meaning educated and brought up to follow his agenda in their own schools. They are automatically programed to do anything to defend their leader, of course not by violence, through persuasion and goodwill. They are also programmed to bring democracy to the country and for that we should all be grateful to Fettullah Gulen.

These are the fighters on the frontiers of new Turkish democracy, human rights, religious freedom of any sort, minority rights,gay rights, gender equality. And once again for all that, we should be thankful to Fettullah Gulen. I mean where would Turkey go if he sided with the military like he did during 1980 coup instead of preaching and programming his followers to create a the great democracy we are becoming.

So i give up and prey for more policemen, district attorneys, judges and people in public offices that are full of admiration and love of Fettullah Gulen and follow his teachings. That my friend, is the fastest way of democratizing Turkey.

The only thing that I understand here, people are trying to black propaganda against each other. In order to be able to understand the truth in here, it should be reqired to read each sides arguments one by one. Otherwise, we cannot come up with any solution.

I think Soner is alone in his arguments and his aloneness gives hime some power to sound some arguments as more powerful. On the other hand, Gulenists, or FG's supporters (whatever it is called) have many answers to the claims and accusations such as biased, baseless and black propaganda etc.

I can conclude that Turkey is changing and in this change, the time works for Gulenists more vocal.

There is voluminous information and publications about Gulen and the movement besides his own writings. There is a wide spectrum of perceptions, opinions and beliefs about them in Turkey and abroad. To get a good feeling, and to form an opinion, about Gulen and the movement, one really has to spend considerable and quality time researching and reading for any credible conclusion. Yet, that is an insurmountable task for most. Thus, let me try to give it a more familiar context:

During the Presidential Elections of 2008, there were claims that President Obama was a Muslim and he was not born in the US. There were serious discussions during the election campaigns and many allegations were made. Many Americans believed both, or one, to some degree. Needless to say, there is still a sizable US population still believing the aforementioned allegations. Now, imagine a population in another corner of the world, let's call it X, that is oblivious to US internal discussions and dynamics about these two allegations. Further, imagine a brilliant scholar in X. That scholar takes these allegations about Mr. Obama and present them to the population of X with his eloquence and his academic weight, as if they are hard facts and convictions of _all_ the Americans. What is more disappointing is that the narrative lacks any rigor, impartiality and scientific method that is expected in making such strong claims.

What would you think when you, as someone familiar with those Mr. Obama allegations and their contexts, read that one-sided, marginal, to the point of being fringe, views? That's what I, being quite familiar with the Turkish cultural and political arena, felt when I read Dr. Cagaptay's article in "Argument" section. Yes, what Dr. Cagaptay presented is actually believed by some in Turkey. The statistical significance of those who believe Dr. Cagaptay's allegations in Turkish public opinion is similar to those who believe the allegations about Mr. Obama in the US public opinion. At the very least and light of the words, one would say they are marginal. A little stronger depiction would put Dr. Cagaptay's allegations in the domain of "conspiracy theory".

The overwhelming majority of the Turkish population has favorable opinion about Gulen and this movement. Further, the overwhelming majority of the publications, academic and journalistic, in and out of Turkey, about Gulen and the movement, has nothing but positive assessments and analyses.

Given the academic career of Dr. Cagaptay, this paper appears to raise an enigma. "Why such a scholar wrote this flawed, misleading and sloppy article with unsubstantiated claims lacking scientific methodology?" is a burning question for me. As an academic myself, if I were a reviewer of this paper, I would raise many more issues than the above and give him a "major revisions" score.

fetocular, I'm sorry for all of you ... keep you head into sand. We know very clearly what it was doing what Feto. we would be always in the way secular ATATURK ...

just an arguement like this is enough to think about what this fetullah gulen is doing despite all fetullah gulen supporters' hundreds of defending comments here (as usual).

fetullah gulen's internet army is at work :))

mr. fetullah gulen! please come to Turkey... leave the USA. do not be afraid of your people. please come to your country. come and see :))

It is quite paradoxical to complain about coup arrests on the basis that the accusations are flimsy while making even significantly less credible accusations about the Gulen movement. The Turkish courts have already exonerated him under the biased, watchful eyes of the 1971, 1980 and even 1997 military interventions.
Its complete rebuttal of all the accusations of Dr. Cagaptay's article would take a long writing. Instead, I just want to note the following: It is hard to believe reading a defense manifesto for autocratic, oppressive and undemocratic institutions which have started to yield more representative counterparts during the democratization process in Turkey. FP readers expect a more partial depiction of the developments in Turkey.

we know very clearly feto. do not do cringe here.

Turkish army generals according to prosecutors were planning to turn stadiums into camps and bomb mosques and kill innocent people. Not fgulen and his students. The article has a lot of flaws. I do not buy these allegations! These people work for peace for all humanity.

This is a platform where these people dare to express themselves against public attacks from Ultra nationalist and Militarist people of Turkey. What is wrong with that? Why don you propose your ideas instead of blaming them as "internet army" just because they express themselves?

As a Turkish citizen, I was brought up with the idea that Turkey is surrounded by enemies and Ataturk has been the most wonderful thing ever happened to the universe since the evolution of first bacteria. Therefore, his teachings should be maintained forever. Our life is less important than and should be sacrificed in the name of his teachings. After we grew up, we learned that actually there were other good people too... And, also I realized that since the formation of the new Turkish republic in 1920s there has never been a true democracy and freedom of speech in Turkey, for example a group of people had been ignored, deprived of some fundamental rights and even their mother tongue had been denied of them. Turkey's problem is not Fethullah GULEN. In fact, he has been a catalyst to help a minority to go to school and go more global by enterprising and starting businesses. He inspired a small minority and his group ties is very loose as long as you did not want to actively participate in the community or in one of the organs of the community. They are absolutely not a for profit group with political aims; however, I accept that every social formation has a political dimension. The real problem of Turkey, I believe is the mentality sustaining not to give out or share privileges.
Turkish Elites enjoying all the rights, seeing themselves the true owners of the country should compromise and stop using media, courts and the army formed mostly from young people from Anatolia as tools to neutralize civil activities aiming at liberalizing the country.

Overall perception in the discussed article sounds like F. Gulen is behind the coup arrests in Turkey and there have been ties between him and political parties. I do not think these arguments are well-founded and evidenced. Yes, when such accusing arguments are directed to an individual, one looks for clear-enough and sound-enough foundations leading to that. Activities inspired by F.Gulen are promoting peace and friendship, much needed in today’s world. To some, it may look like cliché to talk about peace and friendship, however, no matter what one’s beliefs are, peaceful dialog and mutual understanding for any sides of any argument are essential to make the world a better place for all.
Besides, multiple coups are dire parts of Turkey’s history and they need to be studied well. It should be noted that democracy is interrupted by coups. Can ‘coup’ and ‘democracy’ be together? Democracy must have its own atmosphere and conditions far from any force; it is thinking, talking, meeting, and first and foremost being free to express ideas. How can anyone be free when the maintainer of democracy is a source of force? Isn’t it really paradoxical?

Regards,

H.Parpucu

Shame on you, Foreign Policy, for publishing these baseless and unsubstantiated smears.

You should have had second thoughts before letting your prestigious publication be used for such transparent spin; but now, given the tone of most of the comments here, I hope you're at least having second thoughts after the fact.

Maybe you'll allow a response from someone who sees the validity and seriousness of what the Ergenekon case has exposed?

In Turkey real "taqiyye" is done by the people who define himself as democrat but indeed he is not. who wants freedom for himself, but not for the others. Who seems to be supporting Turkeys entrance to Europian Union, but indeed they don't support it. Most of Turkish generals, political party leaders, and lot of "elites" don't want Turkey's entrance to EU because they want to stay as "untouchables", they don't want to loose their power and control over Turkey. Until 1949 even elections not done democratically, only 1 party was able to enter to the elections. Turkish army interrupted democracy in Turkey uncountable times, mainly 5 times. They even killed the prime minister and some ministers. World has changed, so Turkey. As Devrim said above "If you listen carefully, you can hear the sounds of democracy being emerged in Turkey".

That's right, FG and his followers work for peace for all humanity.

are you kidding? come off it ...read history of turks....(if you have mental)issue is not democracy.... exactly Feto about ....

Following the news on Turkish political landscape for a while now, I expected to see some kind of proof that ties Gulenists to the recent intriguing developments in Turkey. Unfortunately, Mr. Cagaptay's article is based exclusively on rumors, on what people "say" or "think". In that sense, it is not much different from the rich variety of conspiracy theories out there. Perhaps a more rigorous academic analysis that brings in a variety of views could do more justice to he issue. Interesting theory, but nevertheless, a theory just the same.

It is really funny to see there are people who are blaming FG for the arrest of a pop singer due to drug related allegations. This shows the mindset of Ergenekon supporters very well.

This article is full of speculations to cover the hard facts with dirt and those facts are:

1) FG and his movement does not only accepts democracy, secular and modern life style but cherishes them
2) Those generals are arrested with the order of secular court system
3) There has been 5 coups in Turkey since the Turkish Republic established
4) There has not been a single terror event since the Ergenekon suspects have arrested and put in jail in Turkey.
5) Terror events are known tactics of Gladio to build tension.
6) The Gladio has been a reality in most of the European countries. Maybe the most famous of all in Italy ended in 90s with an operation similar to Ergenekon

I am sure the supporters of Italian Gladio was writing this type of articles at that time to cover their crimes against humanity...

Mr. Cagaptay is obviously against anything Gulen is standing for. Although I completely understand that, he has to do better than what he is trying to do. Far worse lies and allegations have been told against this movement since day one. (Un)fortunately, it seems like they don't work. 40 years ago they were only a handful and now look where they are! It's about time that Mr. Cagaptay and his similars come up with some original ideas. Guys, really, come on! Is this really the best you can do? You need some fresh ideas! We're counting on you. The worse you hit, the more powerful FGH becomes.

“Gülen espoused a Machiavellian approach to democracy, saying to his followers in a message broadcast on Turkish TV in 1999 that "every method and path is acceptable [including] lying to people." …

When the Turkish courts charged Gülen with corruption and anti-secular political activities in 1999, he fled to a rural compound in Pennsylvania. Although he was later acquitted, Gülen has never returned to Turkey.”

You can find tones of audio from Gulen on the web from which you can derive almost everything. I am wondering why Gulen was later acquitted by the Turkish courts.

I don't think this unscholarly written article deserves any comment or attention, please content with above example. I just reported it abuse. I hope FP will be more selective next time.

Looking at the interesting title, I started reading the article with the hope of finding "new" insights on the issue. However, the result came out to be disappointing as the author seemed to lack even basic background on Gulen movement. Being a professor and reviewing scientific papers/articles regularly, I would definitely immediately reject an article whose author does not even bother to do basic literature review on the concept he/she is trying to put forward. That's exactly the case in this article. For instance, Cagaptay claims that Gulen movement was a supporter of Islamist Welfare Party (RP) in the past which is clearly not true. Another incorrect information is the claim that "When the Turkish courts charged Gülen with corruption and anti-secular political activities in 1999, he fled to a rural compound in Pennsylvania". When this was happened, Gulen was already in the US due to his health problems. These two pieces of basic information can be easily obtained via a google search or from any person in Turkey with a moderate interest/knowledge in politics. I am not even considering to argue on the other claims as I see lots of comments on those issues already. However, my point is that if someone claiming to be expert on a topic does not even bother to put his/her time to learn basic background information about his/her topic, I would definitely not be convinced with the claims put forward in his/her work.

Author’s comments are extremely accurate and to the point. Finally some real perspective among comments those are no good besides scratching the surface of this totally ridiculous Ergenekon case. Those who criticize the author not providing any credible evidence post their own views based on their own experience; and nothing else. A reasonable human being without any bias can just read the allegations on funny newspaper reports on alleged plots and just laugh about it. The scenarios on Taraf newspaper in circulation in Turkey is no good than a bad Hollywood movie with a low budget and a terrible screen writer, but all this nonsense is being regarded as evidence on courts.

It is put forward that Gulen has such a power to press on law executers and even on military.. How come a non-governmental and non-profit organisation can be this powerful?

More than putting thing on table objectively, the contribution is mostly felt to be a side of this process in Turkey. Many lack (or hide) of information about Mr.Gulen and its movement. Gulen has never been a part on politics, nor supported any political party till now. Anyone can esily be informed about this by typing a simple google search.

I am afraid the contributer is not objective, but very subjective about the subject, on behalf of militarizm in Turkey.

I am having difficulty in understanding these two issues

1. If you look at the comments, it is quite obvious that this article is TOO provocative to be published in FP. Why did FP do this?

2. What is this tension among Turkish commenters about? From psychology point of view, it seems to me that some people are extremely envy of Gulen.

Dear GALADRIEL, why are you trying to have a street fight in here. I don't think this is the place for your provocations.

If you want to make a decision about a process or a factory, you fist check the product, don't you?

You yourself say that they have 120 schools in the US. Sure everybody knows that there are hundrets of schools all over the world. Tell me what kind of students graduate from those schools, have you ever seen or wondered?

Tell me how many guys, graduated from these schools, behaved as terrorists? I can start to give a piece of right to you, if you can show -only one- news from -any- means of newspapers or TV's mentioning this. If you cannot show, the how come that kind of a huge strusture's products can't be a sample of this (terrorissim/CIA) idea? Even one sample should accidently come up..

Come on...

I meant to say that FP is (used to be, at least) a magazine in which articles with a certain level of academic values are published and discussed.
Provocative comments diverge from the article and turns into release of personal anger.
Thank you all those who spent time to read the article and did an academic analysis to share with us.
Dear GALAD..., feel free to do this in one of those tabloid newspapers in your country, but not in FP.

I am really surprised to see how a militarist, ultra-secular, hardcore Turkish right wing representative such as Cagaptay to be able to voice his conspiracy theories in major respectable magazines like Foreign Policy and Newsweek.

This single sentence can tell how one sided this story is; "The force behind this dramatic change is the Fethullah Gülen Movement..."(where is the proof?). Cagaptay certainly knows how to portray his own delusions as facts. He did the same thing in his article in Newsweek. There is certainly a war going on in Turkey between elitist, ultra-secular, hardcore militarists whose intellectual scope does not go behind Kemalism such as Cagaptay himself and a new generation who wants real democracy at world standards, who wants to reclaim Ottoman Empire's heritage in the world and who wants a country that is open to world, and where its people are not seen as second class citizens by those elitists. Anybody who follows Turkey's media nowadays knows about those coup plots recorded at the time in writing and orally include unbelievable violent plans against civil citizens, non-Muslim minorities and politicians. And again anybody who is familiar with modern Turkish history knows that these kinds of plots have been used many times in the past decades by militarists in order to disturb the peace in the country so that they can keep civil governments under control. Those militarists and their civil servants such as Cagaptay claim that all these scenarios are made up in order to deprive secular Turkish military as if the same military did not overthrow elected governments four times since 1960 and has been continuously interfering one way or the other into politics since then.

On the other hand Cagaptay states Gulen is behind those arrests; last time I checked, in Turkey courts were deciding who is to be arrested or not. Neither police nor the prosecutors can throw those into jail without a court order. So does Cagaptay say all the police force in Turkey, all the judicial system including prosecutors and judges (in several courts and cities), all the army personal who revealed those secret plans to the public and all the media that published those coup plans are under the influence of Gulen? If he is really that powerful why is he still forced to live in exile?

Just only looking at the conflicting accusations against Gulen will give you an idea about what kind of ill-minded people have problem with him: Ultra seculars in Turkey accuse him being a pro-Iran, radical Islamist, and being a CIA agent trying to overthrow secular Turkish government at the same time. Some pig-headed Muslim looking cults claim him being a spy of Vatican in the Islamic world trying to destroy Islam by preaching peace and tolerance between religions and cultures and building bridges between Christianity and west. Some others accuse him simply by fundamentalism even though the schools and universities established by his movement have the reputation of being the best institutions in Turkey and other countries.

As someone who graduated from one of those schools and have been lucky to teach at one of them in the past I condemn Cagaptay's accusation against Gulen and his movement. Gulen certainly has an influence in Turkey but it is certainly towards modernization, democracy, peace and integration with the developed world.

The accusations from Mr. Cagaptay are biased, not well supported and distorting the truth about Mr. Gulen and his vision about Turkey and the world. I have hard time understanding the reasons behind FP's choice to publish this article. Turkey is going through a tough time recently, that is correct. It has to choose whether the government should stay under the influence/control of the Turkish army, or it should become a true democracy where the people have control over their future. This article is another example of efforts to save the army influenced old system. Unfortunately, the author has chosen a very cheap way to do it. Mr. Gulen has said/done nothing bad about Turkey and its people. Of course, not everybody must like him, but at least he deserves a respect and fair comments like every human being.

I found that Cagaptay's opinion factually inaccurate and biased. One could write a full article, refuting what Cagaptay passes off as fact and the rather absurd conclusions he draws. Let me tell you one. He writes the Turkish courts charged Gulen with corruption and anti-secular political activities in 1999. He is totally wrong. There is absolutely no court charge at all about Fethullah Gulen.

I found that Cagaptay's opinion factually inaccurate and biased. One could write a full article, refuting what Cagaptay passes off as fact and the rather absurd conclusions he draws. Let me tell you one. He writes the Turkish courts charged Gulen with corruption and anti-secular political activities in 1999. He is totally wrong. There is absolutely no court charge at all about Fethullah Gulen.

I am so dissappointed to read this article, because I could not believe how Cagastay can express his conspiracy theories as real. He does not have any proof or evidence, only theories. Anyone who is objective, can search about Gulen and easily prove Cagastay opinions are wrong. I hope Cagastay also get his objective view and read more about Gulen and talk with unbiased people.

I do not understand how come such an upscale, objective and well-respected magazine let Soner Cagaptay to publish his pointless, baseless and over-speculative thoughts regarding Gulen and Turkey.

I think Cagaptay should answer the following questions first;

1) What does the strong evidences of Operation Cage and Operation Sladgehammer mean to him?

2) Why is he trying to underestimate the enormous evidence pile of Ergenekon trial?

No more distorting the facts! Everything is crystal clear!!!

I think democratization of Turkey won't be inhibited from now on.

Soner is trying really hard to convince us that those generals are innocent people who doesn't even dream about coups, and their only guilt is being against FG. But the facts of the whole history of army and the concrete evidence against these high ranked officials contradicts him. It is full of violence and coups.

A few numbers from 1980 coup (you can find these data with a few googling)

1) Coup prosecutors asked death penalty for almost 7 thousand people, 517 of them got this penalty, 50 of them were executed.
2) 300 people died 'suspiciously' when they were arrested.
3) 171 people were killed with torture.
4) 299 people died in prisons
5) 16 people were shot while they were escaping (!)
6) 95 were killed in battles
7) 73 people died because of "natural reasons"
8) 388 thousand people couldn't get passports to leave the country
9) 14 thousand people lost their Turkey citizenship, 30 thousand people escaped from the country.
10) 937 movies were banned
11) 23677 associations were shut down.
....
This list goes on and on. These are results of one coup only. Those four star innocent generals did 4 coups like this (1960, 1971, 1980, 1997), they even hung the Prime Minister Adnan Menderes for Gods sake!
We are reading this kind of hogwash from army supported media in Turkey everyday. Soner basically translated what he read from them and presented these words as a scientific article.
FG media group is definitely against the coups and the generals who tried or are trying to make coups, but there is no evidence that all these prosecutors and judges are members of this group.
I don't think that the prosecutors will arrest these high ranked officialls if they don't have concrete evidence against them. They are arrested with the order of secular Turkish judiciary system.
I don't know if there is really some organization behind all these trials against these greedy generals, but I do know that Turkish people don't want these generals and their coups.
Whatever happened to Gladio in Italy is basically happening to Ergenekon in Turkey now. Generals, prosecutors, ministers were arrested in Italy as a member of terrorist group, and we are experiencing the same thing now.

It is an exam, and Soner, you are getting F!

Cagatay is a joke

There are some people in Turkey who are straight out enemies of religion and any kind of conservatism. Cagatay is one of them. In a country where 90% of the population is Sunni Muslim unfortunately there is a small group of elite who have no religion at all. When you ask them they say they are Muslim but in practice they are not. These people hate religion and any religious people because they remind them the rules of the religion they claim to belong which bothers them and intervenes with their lifestyles. Turkey is a secular democratic country where everyone is free to live anyway they want as long as they follow the laws. The military has been the biggest power in Turkey for the past 5 or 6 decades and have derailed Turkish economy at least 4 times with coups or many more coup attempts.
Power hungry general always dream of a possibility of a coup to come in their lifetime and they seem to spend more time planning these coups more than they serve their country. As revealed in an unbelievably bright manner with the Ergenekon case the military has been cooking up these plans for years and have committed many crimes against their people on their way to success. The military enjoys the best of everything in Turkey, a freedom never seen anywhere else to do as they wish, even going before the interests and choices of public which pays their salaries.
People in turkey are sick and tired of the dirty laundry the military has been laundering for years with their civilian obedient servants behind them.
that is why AKP has won 2 elections with a never seen before majority of votes. They have become the the strongest political party in Turkey's modern history and thats for one reason only; they represent the majority of Turkish people not the elite and small interest groups!
By the way if you are wondering about Fethullah gulen just search him on the web and dont take anything from me or Mr.Cagatay here, but in my opinion he is an Islamic scholar who cares about his people more than any high ranked general or government official. He has devoted his whole life to serve the people of his country and even left that country not cause any stir in the society with his struggle with the unfair lawsuits against him(by the from all of which he was cleared and never found guilty of anything). So to think the Ergenekon case has anything to do with him is a paranoya of these military fanatics who would love live under a military regime rather than a democracy but yet prefer to live in a free country like US rather than their own country.

The Gülen movement is a shadowy ultraconservative Islamist movement? Not in my experience, nor the in the experience of many here in Oklahoma. Turkish admirers of Fethullah Gülen are extraordinarily active in promoting interfaith dialogue, Turkish culture, and an understanding of Islam--particularly the peaceful Islam characteristic of Sufism. Their functions are open to everyone, and are regularly attended by Jews, Christians, non-Turkish Muslims, athiests, Buddhists, and Hindus. They are solid members of the community and unfailingly friendly and open. They function easily in American secular society, and I have never encountered them sitting in judgement of anyone. They have earned the respect of scholars of the three major universities here in the Oklahoma City area, and work closely with universities and academics all over the U.S. They are faithful to their religion, but practice it through understanding, acceptance, and dialogue. I have read Gülen's work extensively, and have never run across anything which would make me fearful of his interpretation of Islam. Cagaptay seems to be trying to prey on American fears of Islamist movements, using inflammatory rhetoric to make his paranoid and biased claims. I am disappointed in Foreign Policy for neither adequately vetting this article, or at least providing a counterpoint.

Theresa A. Vaughan, Ph.D.

if you haven't read the below articles, I'd highly recommend you to do so:

A Response to Rachel Sharon-Krespin's 'Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition: Turkey's Islamist Danger' (1)

21 February 2009 10:25 Written by Prof. Dr. Greg Barton

My heart sank as I read the recent article by Rachel Sharon-Krespin, "Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition: Turkey's Islamist Danger" (Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2009, pp. 55-66).
If she is right, then we might as well abandon all reasonable hope of seeing progressive civil society organizations emerging in the Muslim world anytime soon. Judging from this piece by Sharon-Krespin and earlier works by her colleagues Michael Rubin and Daniel Pipes at the Middle East Quarterly, these commentators appear to have been uncritically swayed by the views and dark fears of secular ultra-nationalists when it comes to their assessment of Turkish affairs.
Rubin and Pipes are smart guys, and I agree with much of what they write in other contexts. Nevertheless, I take a generally more optimistic position on contemporary Islamic movements than they do and am not at all persuaded that we are witnessing a "clash of civilizations." I think that it is a mistake on every level to live in such fear of Islam that we see danger in every corner, even where it does not exist, and fail to see the good that plainly does exist. Even so, I see myself as a realist - I am no fan of Islamist politics and activism in any form - although I would argue that some forms are preferable to others - and would be the first to be concerned if I thought that what Sharon-Krespin was arguing was indeed true.
I loathe the violence and hatred of the militant Islamist groups that have arisen out of the Muslim Brotherhood and regard jihadi terrorism as a real and continuing threat. I am not, however, convinced that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is in fact Islamist (I would see it being better understood as being post-Islamist) in the manner of Necmettin Erbakan and the Milli Görü? movement that preceded it. But I would not claim to be an expert on Turkish politics and have not studied matters carefully enough to form a proper assessment of the AK Party.
When it comes to the Gülen movement, however, I feel a good deal more confident in my reading of the movement's true character and intentions. And, frankly, I am simply not persuaded by the Sharon-Krespin line. She certainly writes sufficiently well that were I completely unfamiliar with the issues I might be inclined to believe her. The 58 footnotes accompanying her article give it an air of substance and credibility. But on closer examination the article appears to be little more than a pastiche of partisan and prejudiced assertions and the references don't offer the academic support that their sheer volume initially suggests.
I have done a moderate amount of research on the Gülen movement over the past five years, in the context of spending 20 years studying similar Islamic movements in Asia, and feel, to my own satisfaction, that I have obtained a fairly good understanding of the movement. Like virtually everything of consequence in Turkish society, Fethullah Gülen and the movement associated with him attracts diverse responses from a nation still recovering from a turbulent history marked by deep polarization. The ultranationalist right, including elements of the military, views civil-sphere movements in general, and religion-based movements in particular, with deep suspicion. Moreover, the somewhat fractured and polarized nature of Turkish society, though considerably moderated now, manifests itself in reports in the newspapers and other organs of the various camps habitually identifying vast conspiracies and hidden agenda linked to rival camps. It is not surprising then that Gülen continues to be viewed with suspicion by some within the Turkish establishment. But basing a scholarly article, even in part, on sensationalist stories run in staunchly secular newspapers like Cumhuriyet and ultranationalist tabloids like Milliyet and Hürriyet is misleading.
For what it is worth, the following are my brief responses to some of the key assertions made by Sharon-Krespin, in the order in which they appear in her article:
The Gülen movement has been comparatively well studied over the past decade and has become increasingly self-reflexive. I have found the movement to be remarkably open and have not found research access at all difficult, nor have I ever felt pressured to take a particular line in what I write or say about it. If the movement really was hiding dark secrets and conspiratorial ambitions then I think that I would have discovered at least a little about them by now. Just as importantly, there is nothing I have seen that would lead me to describe it as being an Islamist movement. It is clearly, in certain respects, a socially conservative and pietistic movement, but it nevertheless stands diametrically opposed to Islamism. The fact that Gülen was openly critical of Erbakan as prime minister, disagreeing with the (relatively soft) Islamist policies of the Virtue Party (FP) and the Milli Görü? (National Vision) movement associated with Erbakan is but one of many pieces of evidence pointing to his aversion to Islamist ideas.
Translating hocaefendi as "master lord," as is done in this article, is a bit misleading - teachers are regularly referred to as "hoca" in Turkish Islamic circles and "effendi" is used freely in conversation in much the same way as the word "sir" is in America. Certainly, Gülen is regarded with great respect and affection within the movement, but this is in keeping with the pattern of pious Muslim society in Turkey and across the Muslim world, and parallels common Christian and Jewish practice.
In my observation, the Gülen movement's commitment to dialogue and tolerance is profound and genuine. In fact, I know of no other large Islamic movement anywhere that is so consistently and convincingly committed to dialogue. After years of interaction with them, I can't believe that this is all merely part of some vast charade or a stalking-horse for political ambition. I would suspect that the vast majority of Gülen movement members are personally supportive of the AK Party (after all, Turkish citizens have to vote for one party or another and the AK Party is no doubt felt by many to be the best choice available) - but this is very different from saying that the movement, despite its frequent denials, is in fact party-political. I simply don't see any compelling evidence that the movement wants "to become the government."
The figures quoted of Turkey having 85,000 active mosques - one for every 350 citizens seems plausible, if a little on the high side, but it needs to be understood that Gülen himself has for 30 years encouraged his followers to use their charitable giving to build schools rather than mosques on the grounds that Turkey already has plenty of mosques but lacks as sufficient number of good schools.
Moreover, conflating the position of Gülen and the Gülen movement with the policies and (alleged) intentions of the AK Party government, as this article does repeatedly, is neither fair nor reasonable. The dynamics here are altogether more complex than that, and speak as much to the relative robustness of democracy in Turkey today as they do to its weakness.
Importantly, more than ever, what is happening in Turkey gives us hope for the potential of Islam to support liberal democracy. It is not sufficient to merely assert, as Sharon-Krespin does, that "it is not clear whether the Fethullahist cemaat [community] supports the AKP or is the ruling force behind the behind the AKP. Either way, however, the effect is the same."
Similarly, it is all too easy to simply assert of Gülen that "he is a financial heavyweight, controlling an unregulated and opaque budget estimated at $25 billion." The claim is followed by a footnoted reference to an academic paper that not only gives no evidence for the fantastic figure of $25 billion quoted but rather makes a nuanced and convincing argument about how that pattern of philanthropic giving within the Gülen movement conforms to the general patterns on social and religious philanthropy in the West, as well as confirming with traditional Turkish Islamic conventions.

A Response to Rachel Sharon-Krespin's 'Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition: Turkey's Islamist Danger' (2)

21 February 2009 10:25 Written by Prof. Dr. Greg Barton

It is deeply misleading and offensive to claim that "Fethullah Gülen is an imam who considers himself a prophet." This is a very strong assertion but the evidence given in support of it does not go beyond hearsay and is certainly entirely out of keeping with the vast corpus of material published by and about Gülen.
Were it to be true it would involve both a vast conspiracy of silence and profound doctrinal deviation on the part of the millions involved with the movement. This is frankly not plausible.
It is also misleading to say that Gülen's "formal education is limited to five years of elementary school." It is true that his early classroom education was cut short when his family moved to the village of Alvarli in the impoverished province of Erzurum. Conditions in Turkey's mountainous far east in the 1940s was difficult. But it is noteworthy that Gülen went on to complete the official imam hatip exams and graduate from secondary school. Gülen certainly benefited from his studies with well-established Islamic scholars, but he is also a voracious reader and autodidact. A prolific author accomplished at writing for both ordinary laypeople and for scholars his Quranic scholarship and studies of Said Nursi are highly regarded by academic experts.
By any measure he is not just one Turkey's most significant contemporary intellectuals but also one of the world's leading modern Islamic intellectuals. It is, of course, reasonable to disagree with him, but it is foolish to dismiss him as a lightweight.
Sharon-Krespin makes brief reference to Nursi. She is correct in associating Gülen with Nursi's legacy, but the way in which she discusses Nursi's views suggests either deep prejudice or deep ignorance.
It is not clear where Sharon-Krespin gets the ideas that Gülen's followers "even refrain from marrying until age fifty per his instructions." Her account suggests a dour and joyless community earnestly following their leader's instructions without thinking for themselves. As a scholar of religion, I fully acknowledge that such groups do exist (including within the world of Protestant Christianity with which I am associated), but in my observation the Gülen movement is not such a group. In my dealings with members of the movement, I am struck by their consistent good humor and occasionally even mischievous sense of fun. These are people who love life and enjoy each others' company. Yes, they do tend to dress in a more conservative fashion - although not exclusively so - which is hardly surprising given the social origins of the movement and, like the vast majority of observant Muslims around the world, they do not drink alcohol. But to spend time in their company is to be reminded that one needs neither alcohol nor secular cool to enjoy laughter and good humor. Social conservatism is not necessarily a sign of fundamentalism.
The Gülen movement's contributions to education are indeed impressive but seem more than a little exaggerated here. And presenting them as being part of an "education jihad" based on indoctrination is more than a little unfair as it grossly misrepresents the consistently secular content of what is taught in the classrooms and the overall ethos of the schools. Different scholars will, naturally enough, have different positions on this. My own position, having observed the movement over the past five years is that it represents precisely the sort of non-Islamist, progressive, civil society movement that Muslim world needs at this point in history if it is to engage with democratic, secular, modernity. In my reading, the educational programs can be understood as broadly paralleling earlier examples of Christian and Jewish educational philanthropy in the West.
Perhaps this makes me a non-credible observer as one of the many "friends, ideological fellow-travellers, and co-opted journalists and academics." If that is the case, it would appear that I am in good company.

Please take some time to read the below article - another academic response to Rachel Sharon-Krespin's article.

“Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition”: A Biased, Selective, Misleading, Misrepresentative and Miscalculated Article
Dogan Koc, January 29, 2010

Rachel Sharon-Krespin’s article titled “Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition: Turkey’s Islamist Danger” published in the Middle East Quarterly’s 2009 winter issue was brought to my attention by a colleague due to its citation of an article which I co-authored with Helen Rose Ebaugh. In her article Sharon-Krespin states:

He (Fethullah Gülen) is a financial heavyweight, controlling an unregulated and opaque budget estimated at $25 billion (p56).

She gives our article as the source of the above information, citing it in the footnotes as Helen Rose Ebaugh and Dogan Koç, “Funding Gülen-Inspired Good Works: Demonstrating and Generating Commitment to the Movement,” fgulen.com, Oct. 27, 2007.

It appears as if Sharon-Krespin was using Ebaugh and Koç (2007) as a source for her statement. It is unclear, however, just which part of her statement she attributes to our article. Regardless, her statement misquotes what we presented in the article.

In this paper, without suggesting any alternative argument to Sharon-Krespin (2009), first I correct the information which is referenced to Ebaugh and Koç (2007). I then analyze the sources used by Sharon-Krespin (2009) to show how biased, selective, misleading, mispresentative and miscalculated are the data that she presents. Finally, I address some of the contradictory information and arguments presented in the same article.

First of all, as the co-author of the cited article, it is my responsibility to respond to Sharon-Krespin and to inform readers that the information mentioned in the article with reference to the Ebaugh and Koç (2007) citation is incorrect and that the statements she makes based on the incorrect data, therefore, are also incorrect.

The article, "Funding Gülen-Inspired Good Works: Demonstrating and Generating Commitment to the Movement,” was originally a conference paper that Ebaugh and I presented at the London School of Economics during the Muslim World in Transition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement Conference in October, 2007. The article addresses mechanisms of financing for Gülen-inspired projects, based on interviews with business leaders in Turkey who constitute much of the financial infrastructure of the movement. In addition, the paper presents data from one local Gülen movement organization in Houston, Texas, that collects thousands of dollars annually from local members, mostly students on small educational stipends (Ebaugh and Koç 2007). We framed the paper sociologically in terms of organizational theories of commitment. Beginning with Kanter (1972;1977) and including subsequent major figures in the organizational field (e.g. Reichers 1985; Meyer and Allen 1991; Hall 2002; Scott 2003), scholars have demonstrated a positive correlation between sacrifices asked of members or participants and degree of commitment to the goals of an organization. Using this perspective, the paper argues that the financial contributions made by participants in the Gülen movement both demonstrate commitment to the ideals espoused by Fethullah Gülen and generate commitment to the movement.

Ebaugh and Koç (2007) article defines the Gülen movement as a civil society movement that arose in the late 1960s in Turkey, initially composed of a loose network of individuals who were inspired by M. Fethullah Gülen. While Ebaugh and Koç (2007) article accepts Woodhall’s (2005) statement that the Gülen-inspired projects number in the thousands, span international borders and are costly in terms of human and financial capital, the article does not give an exact or even an estimated financial amount of contributions. Therefore, the $25 billion that Sharon-Krespin (2009) reports, citing our paper, has no basis in the paper itself or in the data that we collected. Where Sharon-Krespin obtains the $25 billion figure remains unknown or undeclared.

As a matter of fact, during the presentation of the paper at the London School of Economics, a member of the audience asked if we could give a total amount for the financial worth of the movement. We indicated[1] that we could not, and that it was not in the scope of our paper to do so. A later article (Koç 2008) describes the fact that Gülen-inspired projects are always locally based and embedded in local circles of supporters so that a study of the financial resources of the Gülen Movement as a whole would require traveling all over the world and studying all the GM projects to determine the financial amounts involved. Since such research has not occurred, it is impossible for Sharon-Krespin (2009) to state an exact quantity for the money contributed to Gülen-inspired projects.

In our paper, we cite Aslandogan and Cetin (2006) who state that, apart from encouraging people to donate money, Gülen has remained distant from all financial involvements and instead has encouraged those who sponsor projects to oversee the use of their contributions. During our interviews, one of the businessmen stated:

Every school has its own independent accounting system and accountants who manage the budget and financial books. They are all accountable to the local and state authorities, as well as to the trust’s sponsors. The local sponsors are knowledgeable about the status of the ongoing projects at any given time, for they are personally responsible for many of them, either as construction contractors, accountants, serving on the board of directors, teachers, principals, etc. It is quite easy, therefore, for them to monitor how the donations are used, thereby achieving transparency in financial issues. Moreover, as one businessman explained, “First of all, I want you to know that people in the Gülen movement have gained the trust of people in every strata of life. People who support the activities of this movement do not worry about whether the support reached its destination, they don’t chase it. However, if we want to look at it, all kinds of information is available in every activity, we can be sure by looking at them” (Ebaugh and Koç 2007, 544).

Finally, we underline the complexity and contradictory structure of the arguments regarding the source of money involved in the Gülen Movement. While some suggest the possibility of collusion between the movement and various governments, especially Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Turkish government, others suggest that the United States’ CIA may be a financial partner behind the projects (Kalyoncu (2008) refers to these claims). Some have even suggested that Gülen is a secret agent of the Papacy (M. S. Eygi 2000). None of the above contentions have been substantiated with any kind of objective data, and they appear mostly as newspaper articles. In our article (Ebaugh and Koç 2007), we conclude:

Based on the scant literature that exists on the funding of Gülen-inspired projects and our own interviews conducted with members of the Gülen Movement both in Turkey and in Houston, Texas, it is evident that the money behind the movement is provided by millions of people the world over who are committed to the ideas and ideals promoted by Gülen (p. 550).

In 2008, I conducted an empirical analysis of the financial resources of some of the Gülen-inspired projects by inspecting the books in institutions and interviewing key personnel. I find that donations are not made in large amounts by a few but rather donations are made in small amounts by many people. (Koç 2008)

In light of the errors contained in the Sharon-Krespin article regarding our paper, one wonders if Sharon-Krespin actually read the article or simply used it as a reference since it carried the words “Funding” and “Gülen” in its title. If the Sharon-Krespin (2009) article had been published in a newspaper or on an internet blog, I would have simply addressed the misquotes of the Ebaugh and Koç (2007) reference. However, since the article was published in an academic journal, I feel compelled to address some other issues in the paper, especially with regard to its references and data.

Issues Regarding the References in Sharon-Krespin (2009)

I am not suggesting that only academic or scientific resources should be used in academic articles; however, there must be criteria which distinguish social science papers from newspaper or internet blog articles. In other words, while people can write anything they want in newspapers and internet blogs without any scientific or academic concerns, academic journal papers should be based on at least some scientific ground or analysis.

Since Sharon-Krespin (2009) did not conduct an empirical study or theoretical analysis, and her arguments (and paper itself) are based mainly on selected literature, it is essential to evaluate references. Sharon-Krespin used endnotes to indicate her resources. The following table shows the types of resources used as references in the article. (For more details see Sharon-Krespin (2009) endnote section.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] This happened during the questions and answer section of the panel during our presentation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before looking at the credibility of some of the resources used by Sharon-Krespin (2009), I would like to point out that 56.9% of the resources are newspaper articles 27.8% are TV programs, and 4.2% are internet based papers. Only 6.9% are conference or journal articles and 4.2% are references from books. In other words, almost 90% (the combination of newspaper articles, TV programs, and internet blog articles) of the sources used by Sharon-Krespin (2009) are from sources with no academic or scientific control for credibility.

For instance, the main references that shape the structure and the tone of the Sharon-Krespin (2009) article are from non-credible, marginal sources. Sharon-Krespin refers to Yanarda? (interview) in 5 different places (6.9% of the total number of sources). Yanarda? was taken into custody by the Turkish police on October 27, 2008, due to his connection with the Ergenekon Terrorist Organization (ETO) (Taraf 2008). Yanarda? is accused because of his connections with a high-ranking ETO member, Tuncay Ozkan, who has also been arrested (Çoban and Turk 2008) and who was the owner of a TV channel (Kanal Türk) on which Yanarda? gave this interview. Sharon-Krespin (2009) uses the interview of Adil Serdar Saçan who, interestingly, was also arrested due to his connection to the ETO, and not surprisingly his interview was also on the same TV channel (Kanal Türk). An interview with Nurettin Veren that is quoted several times was also on the same TV channel. Newspapers and internet blog news quoted are also from similar non-academic sources.

In summary, anyone can write an article and shape it according to his/her agenda by using selective sources. However, academic and scientific papers should be based on credible, academic and scientific sources. The use of such scientific sources and data maintains the credibility of an academic journal and the field which it represents.

Sharon-Krespin (2009) not only uses selective and biased references but also fails to give references for some very important information. In some cases she miscalculates, misleads and distorts the data. For instance, she states:

Today, Turkey has over 85,000 active mosques, one for every 350 citizens—compared to one hospital for every 60,000 citizens—the highest number per capita in the world, and, with 90,000 imams, more imams than doctors or teachers. It has thousands of madrasa-like Imam-Hatip schools and about four thousand more official slate-run Qur'an courses, not counting the unofficial Qur'an schools, which may expand the total number tenfold (p. 55).

There is no reference for the numbers of active mosques (85,000); therefore, the reader cannot judge the accuracy of the number or verify it through a referenced source. Ergener (2002), for example, gives the total number of mosques as 73,500 in 2002 and states that 1,500 mosques are built each year. Assuming Ergener (2002) is accurate, and 7 years have passed since his estimate, we can assume that Sharon-Krespin’s (2009) claim that there are 85,000 mosques is accurate. However, Sharon-Krespin (2009) claims that there is one mosque for every 350 citizens. According to the CIA World Factbook (2009), Turkey’s estimated population for July 2009 is 76,805,524. Using simple math, if there are 85,000 mosques for the total population, there is one mosque for 76,805,524/85,000 (which is 903). In other words, according to the numbers she provides, there is one mosque for every 903 citizens, not every 350 as she claims. She intentionally exaggerates the numbers to depict Turkey as a country where there are mosques everywhere while hospitals are not found.

Sharon-Krespin (2009) blames the Justice and Development Party (AKP) but mainly Gülen for the transformation of the “secular and democratic fundamental identity” of Turkey “away from sympathy toward Israel and much more toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria. Anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-Semitic sentiments have increased.” She implies that Gülen and the AKP have increased the number of mosques in Turkey. However, according to Ergener (2002), the number of mosques was 73,500 before the AKP government came into office. The AKP was founded in August 14, 2001, and won the November 2002 election in Turkey. Again according to Ergener (2002), 1,500 mosques were being built every year in Turkey, even before the AKP took office. If Ergener’s (2002) data were accurate, 10,500 (7*1,500) new mosques would have been added to the total number (73,500). Therefore, the number of mosques would be 84,000 (73,500+10,500). According to the CIA World Factbook (2003), the population of Turkey was estimated at 67,308,928 for July 2002. There was one mosque for every 915 (67,308,928/73,500) citizens in Turkey, before the AKP government, and even before the establishment of the party. In a comparison of 2009 and 2002, we see that there are only 12 (915–903) fewer people for each mosque. Therefore, the number of citizens per mosque did not change very much during AKP rule, from 2002 to 2009.

Within the same paragraph Sharon-Krespin (2009) provides additional data (again without any source) that there is one hospital for every 60,000 citizens in Turkey. She claims that while there is one mosque for every 350 people (in which I have already shown the miscalculation), there is only one hospital for every 60,000 citizen (the lowest ratio of hospitals per capita in the world) . By implication, while Turkey is full of mosques, people suffer from lack of health care.

First of all, in health data analysis, it is illogical and uncommon to provide the number of hospitals per person. The size and capacities of hospitals differ greatly; therefore, such data can be misleading and useless. For instance, if there are 10 hospitals in Region A, each with a bed-capacity of 1000 in a population of 1,000,000, we can conclude that there is one hospital for every 100,000 people; however, we can also conclude that there is one hospital bed for every 100 people.

On the other hand, if there are 20 hospitals in Region B, each with a bed -capacity of 100 in a population of 1,000,000, we can conclude there is one hospital for every 50,000 people, while there is only one bed for every 500 people. While, in terms of number of hospitals per person, Region B is two times better than Region A, Region A is 5 times better than Region B in terms of number of people per hospital bed. This example shows why using number of people per hospital bed in health data is logical and useful, and why this ratio has been used by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and any other organization which tries to provide sound data. In fact, number of beds per 10,000 people is used by most of the above-mentioned organizations. However, Sharon-Krespin (2009) used number of hospitals per person to compare with number of people per mosque (in order to mislead readers into thinking that there are 171 (60000/350) times more mosques than hospitals) in Turkey.

Sharon-Krespin’s data regarding actual health data is also misleading. The following table presents the World Health Organization (WHO) global data on health care in Turkey and other world regions in order to compare health care conditions in Turkey to other parts of the world.

* Data was obtained from the WHO website, and available at http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat/2008/en/index.html

According to the WHO data, in Turkey there are 27 hospital beds per 10,000 people, which is below the global average (30). However, it is three times more than the African Region (9), slightly more than the Region of the Americas (24), two times more than the Eastern Mediterranean (14) and close to both the global average (30) and the Western Pacific Region (33), but less than half of the European Region (63). The data for the South-East Asia Region is not available. Keeping in mind that the South-East Asia region includes the most populated region in the world, and health care provision in this region is usually lower than in other regions, the inclusion of this region would decrease the global average severely, which in turn puts Turkey above the global average. Thus, in terms of numbers of hospital beds per population, Turkey does not rank at the top of the list; however, it is much better than most countries in the world.

While this is the actual case for Turkey’s health care provision, Sharon-Krespin draws a picture of Turkey that is totally contradictory to the facts. Sharon-Krespin’s main purpose is to blame the AKP and Gülen for her false picture of Turkey.

On the other hand, the WHO data refute Sharon-Krespin’s claims with regard to the AKP. The WHO data provide a comparison of 2000 and 2005. Since the AKP became the government in Turkey in November 2002, the WHO data gives an analysis of health expenditure ratios before the AKP and during the AKP.

According to the WHO data, general government expenditure on health as a percentage of total expenditures (the ratio of health expenditure by government to total health expenditure (including both private and government)) in Turkey was 62.9% in 2000, and it increased to 71.4% in 2005, an increase of 8.5%. While the global average of this ratio stayed the same (56.0%), it decreased in the South East-Asia Region (-1.1%) and Western Pacific Region (-2.8%); it increased slightly in the African Region (1.6%), the Region of the Americas (1.0%) and the European Region (0.9%). The general government expenditure on health as a percentage of total expenditure on health also increased in the Eastern Mediterranean Region more than other regions (6.6%); however, even this increase was lower than Turkey’s. In other words, under the AKP government the general Turkish government expenditure on health as a percentage of total expenditure increased more than in any other region. The AKP government spent on health care more than not only the previous Turkish government, but also more than most of the governments in the world.

The data on general government expenditure on health as a percentage of total government expenditure also show how much the AKP government increased health care expenditure as a percentage of total government expenditure. The general Turkish government expenditure on health as a percentage of total government expenditure in 2000 was 9.8%, and it increased to 13.9% in 2005. In other words, health expenditure increased by 4.1% in total government expenditures, again one of the highest in the world, especially since it decreased by 0.7% in global expenditures.

In summary, first, under the AKP government, Turkish government spending on health increased by 8.5% (as a function of total spending only on health), which was one of the biggest increases in the world. Second, while spending on health decreased or slightly increased in other parts of the world (as a function of overall government spending), in Turkey, it increased by 4.1% from 2002 to 2005. In conclusion, the WHO data show that health care conditions in Turkey are not as Sharon-Krespin depicts them. Furthermore, even if they were as she describes, the AKP government could not be held responsible, since the AKP government has spent more than not only previous Turkish governments but also more than most governments in the world.

In the same paragraph, Sharon-Krespin reports data on the budget of Religious Affairs (RA) (Diyanet I?leri Ba?kanl???). She states:

The spending of the RA has grown fivefold, from 553 trillion Turkish lira in 2002 (approximately US$325 million) to 2.7 quadrillion lira during the first four-and-a-half years of the AKP government; it has a larger budget than eight other ministries combined (p. 55).

She gives Can Dündar from Milliyet Newspaper and Reha Muhtar from Vatan Newspaper as her sources for the above data (see Sharon-Krespin (2009) endnote 1 for details of the references). According to her assertions, Turkey spends a big portion of its budget on religious affairs (a larger budget than eight other ministries combined). Even though, Sharon-Krespin does not suggest that the Religious Affairs is a ministry, her comparing it to other eight ministries may lead readers to assume that the Religious Affairs is a separate ministry. Therefore, it is helpful to point out that Religious Affairs is not a separate ministry but a secretariat under the Prime Minister. Most of the laws and regulations related to the tasks and functions of Religious Affairs have remained the same throughout the history of the Turkish Republic. In other words, the AKP has not changed much about RA.

Turkey is the 17th largest economy in the world (IMF 2009, World Bank 2008) and one of the fastest growing. If the amount of money being spent on Religious Affairs indicated by Sharon-Krespin, (larger than eight other ministries combined) were accurate, this would amount to billions of dollars, and would have caused huge debate both in Turkey, and the EU. However, such discussion is absent both in Turkey and the EU. Again, the data presented by Sharon-Krespin (2009) are inaccurate, manipulated, miscalculated, and distorted.

According the very same source that Sharon-Krespin uses (Milliyet newspaper), the numbers about the budgets of the ministries and Religious Affairs give a very different picture than that which Sharon-Krespin presents.

Milliyet (2006) presents a table of the 2006 budget for ministries (actual numbers) and a conjectural budget for 2007, which I present below.

*Milliyet (2006) indicates that the data is based on the Ministry of Treasury

As can be seen clearly, the budget for Religious Affairs was only 0.78% of the total expenditure in 2007. It is also clear that the budget for the Ministry of Defense was 6.3%; the Ministry of Education had 10.4%; and the Ministry of Health had 3.2% of the total expenditure in 2007. The combination of the budgets of these three ministries (Ministries of Defense, Education, and Health) is 25 times larger than the budget for Religious Affairs. One wonders which eight ministries Sharon-Krespin is talking about. Where did she get the data? One of the sources that she quotes gives a totally different interpretation of the facts.

In her analysis of Gülen’s intentions, Sharon-Krespin quotes several paragraphs of Gülen’s speeches, in which Gülen seems to be encouraging people to organize secretly in the administration until they reach a certain point and gain control of power. Most of these speeches were broadcast during a defamation campaign against Gülen in 1998. Gülen denied the accusations and stated that the video tapes were speech excerpts without context. Aslandogan (2006) points out:

A concurrent phenomenon that happened exactly during this period was the passing of important legislation for the regulation of the banking sector and a banking crisis that eventually cost the state treasury the equivalent of nearly 100 billion dollars. The peculiar coincidence of the media campaign against Gülen and the banking legislation that was at the national assembly during this campaign was noticed by Turkish intellectuals as well as by Mr. Bülent Ecevit, then the prime minister of Turkey. Ecevit voiced his opinion that the media campaign was intended to divert public attention from important legislation to the detriment of the country. Later revelations and developments over time have unfortunately confirmed the prime minister (p. 2).

Aslandogan indicates that this defamation campaign was launched against Gülen as a smoke-screen to divert public attention while some among the elite were emptying banks. Turkey’s loss in that period was close to 100 billion dollars. Aslandogan (2006) also states that the chief attorney for the Ankara National security court Nuh Mete Yüksel started an investigation into the matter:

It was later revealed that the clips that formed one of the bases of the campaign were excerpted without context and montages were done to leave the impression that Gülen was organizing a secret group of government workers to later take over the government. These turned out to be context?free cut and pastes from multiple cassettes that left a completely different impression of Gülen’s intentions (p. 4).

While quoting the montaged video speeches as if they were truly representative, Sharon-Krespin fails to mention the rest of the case. In this way she excerpts without context from excerpts without context from doctored video clips.

Furthermore, Sharon-Krespin states:

In 2008, members of the Netherland's Christian Democrat, Labor, and Conservative parties agreed to cut several million euros in government funding for organizations affiliated with “the Turkish imam Fethullah Gülen” and to thoroughly investigate the activities of the Gülen group after Erik Jan Zürcher, director of the Amsterdam-based International Institute for Social History, and five former Gülen followers who had worked in Gülen’s ???kevi told Dutch television that the Gülen community was moving step by step to topple the secular order (p. 59).

In her reference section she shows Erik Jan Zürcher, “Kamermeerderheid Eist Onderzoek Naar Turkse Beweging,” NOVA documentary, July 4, 2008 as her source of the above quoted information. In this documentary produced by Zürcher, there are only unsubstantiated claims against the Gülen Movement and Gülen himself. These claims are similar to made by marginal groups in Turkey. In fact, Hikmet Çetinkaya of Cumhuriyet newspaper, whose chief editor Ilhan Selcuk (also licensee) was also taken into custody in the investigation of the Ergenekon Terror Organization, appears several times in the film. Most of the claims in the film are supported by statements from five “former Gülen followers.”. In the film, the faces of these five people are obscured and their voices are changed in order to hide their identities. If asked why their identities were covered, most probably the producers of the film would claim that it was in order to protect them. However, covering the faces and disguising the voices of the five also lends an air of mystery or subterfuge and makes their claims difficult to refute. It may have been done because in reality there are no such “former Gülen followers,” but only people who were paid to speak as instructed.

On cutting funding to the schools, Sharon-Krespin fails to provide sources. If the source is the aforementioned film or documentary, (as one assumes), she again fails to cite correctly. The film itself only asks the Netherlands’ government to cut funding after providing fabricated information. However, there is no corroboration of the funding actually being cut. She asserts the wishes and claims of these marginal groups as if they were fact.

In the remaining part of this article, I will address some logical contradictions within the Sharon-Krespin article.

Contradictions and Ambiguities in Sharon-Krespin (2009)

At the very beginning of the article, Sharon-Krespin (2009) states:

Prior to the AKP’s rise, Ankara oriented itself toward the United States and Europe. Today, despite the rhetoric of European Union accession, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has turned Turkey away from Europe and toward Russia and Iran and reoriented Turkish policy in the Middle East away from sympathy toward Israel and much more toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria. Anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-Semitic sentiments have increased (p. 55).

Later on, she states:
In October 2007, the British House of Lords feted Gülen with a conference in his honor (p. 57).

Furthermore, she states:
…the Russian government, weary of the movement's activities in majority Muslim regions of the federation, has banned not only the Gülen schools but all activities of the entire Nur sect in the country (p. 59).

With regards to Gülen’s immigration case, she states:
Two former CIA officials, George Fidas and Graham Fuller, and former U.S. ambassador to Turkey Morton Abramowitz also supplied references (p. 65).

Even though it is not clear, the implication from Sharon-Krespin (under the title US Government Support for Gülen) is that the US government supports Gülen and its granting him residency supports that idea.

At the beginning of the article, Sharon-Krespin (2009) attracts the attention of the Western reader by asserting that Turkey is no longer EU–USA oriented but Russia–Iran oriented. However, her later quotes indicate that the EU–USA supports Gülen while the Russian government bans the Gülen-inspired schools. If the AKP and Gülen are trying to pull Turkey towards Russia and Iran and away from the EU–USA, one wonders why Russia is banning schools (but this information is also not accurate), why the British House of Lords is organizing a conference in Gülen’s honor, why CIA agents and US. diplomats provide references for Gülen, and why the US government is supporting Gülen by granting him residency rights.

Sharon-Krespin is not alone in these contradictory arguments about who is behind Gülen. Some of the sources used by Sharon-Krespin present similar contradictory claims. Some suggest that the American CIA may be a financial backer behind the GM projects (see Kalyoncu (2008) for examples of such claims), and others claim that Gülen is a western plot in Turkey and Islam in general. Meanwhile, the chief writer of the daily newspaper Milli Gorus—a right-wing Islamist newspaper—Mehmet Sevket Eygi (2000a, 2000b) accused (though not directly) Gülen of being a secret agent of the papacy.

None of the above claims have been supported with evidence. They are claims which have been made in TV interviews (on marginal TV channels), or in newspapers and on internet blogs (again marginal ones). These forms of information may be circulated in such sources; however, if they are used in academic venues, they need to be supported by data (unbiased, correctly presented and calculated) or logical assertion. In conclusion, Sharon-Krespin provides a picture of Turkey and Gülen which is contradictory to the facts. However, more importantly, she uses biased, selective, miscalculated, misleading, and misrepresentative data in order to draw these false pictures. Turkey’s role with regard to American interests has increased with the recent changes in the Middle East and Central Asia, especially with regard to war on terror in general, but also the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Obama’s visit to Turkey highlighted the important role of Turkey and underlined the American administration’s awareness of this importance. Therefore, American readers need an accurate picture of Turkey. Sharon-Krespin’s article reminds us (one more time) how cautious readers need to be in interpreting the flow of information, and it serves as an example of how artificial and false information and conclusions can be produced by using selective, biased, miscalculated, misleading, and misrepresentative data.

Bibliography

Aslandogan, Y. Alp. 2006. “Defamation as a Smoke-Screen: A Case in Modern Turkey” in Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice. 3–5 November 2006, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK. http://www.scribd.com/doc/3932175/Aslandogan-Ya-Defamation-as-a-Smoke-Screen?autodown=pdf (accessed May 26, 2009).

Aslandogan, Yuksel, and Muhammed Cetin. 2006. The Educational Philosophy of Gülen in Thought and Practice. In Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World: Contributions of the Gülen Movement, ed. Robert Hunt and Yuksel Aslandogan. New Jersey: The Light, 2006, 31–54.

CIA. 2003. CIA—The World Factbook. March 19, 2003. http://www.faqs.org/docs/factbook/print/tu.html (accessed May 12, 2009).

——. 2009. CIA—The World Factbook. April 29, 2009. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/tu.html (accessed May 12, 2009).

Çoban, Cengiz, and Ümit Turk. 2008. “Tuncay Özkan Gözalt?nda.” Hurriyet, September 23, 2008.

Ebaugh, Helen Rose, and Dogan Koç. 2007. Funding Gülen-Inspired Good Works: Demonstrating and Generating Commitment to the Movement.’ In Muslim World in Transition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement. London: Leeds Metropolitan University Press, 2007, 539–551.

Ergener, Rashid. 2002. About Turkey: Geography, Economy, Politics, Religion, and Culture. Santa Fe: Pilgrims Process, Inc..

Eygi, Mehmet Sevket. 2000a. “Secret Agreement with Papacy.” Milli Gorus, May 26, 2000.
—. 2000b. “Turkic World.” Milli Gazete, May 5, 2000.

IMF. World Economy Outlook Database. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2009/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2008&ey=2008&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=512%2C941%2C914%2C446%2C612%2C666%2C614%2C668%2C311%2C672%2C213%2C946%2C911%2C137%2C193%2C962%2C122%2C674%2C912%2C676%, IMF, (accessed May 12, 2009).

Kalyoncu, Mehmet. 2008. A Civilian Response to Ethno-Religious Conflict: The Gülen Movement in Southeast Turkey. New York: The Light, 2008.

Koç, Do?an. 2008. “Generating an Understanding of Financial Resources in the Gülen Movement: Kimse Yok mu Solidarity and Aid Foundation.” Islam in the Age of Global Challenges: Alternative Perspectives of the Gülen Movement. Washington, DC: Rumi Forum Press, 435–454.

Milliyet. Milliyet. December 26, 2006. http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2006/12/27/ekonomi/eko01.html (accessed May 17, 2009).

Sharon-Krespin, Rachel. 2009. Fethullah Gülen’s Grand Ambition.” Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 16(1), 2009, 55–66.

Taraf. 2008. Ergenekon’da gözalt? ve dava. Istanbul retrieved from http://www.taraf.com.tr/haber/20030.htm, October 27, 2008.

Woodhall, Ruth. 2005. “Organizing the Organization, Educating the Educators: An Examination of Fethullan Gülen’s Teaching and the Membership of the Movement.” Proceedings from Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice. Rice University, Houston, 2005.

World Bank. 2008. Gross Domestic Product:Data for 2007. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GDP.pdf (accessed May 12, 2009).

If there had been a competition among articles having the most misinformation and biased data, probably this one would be a winner.

What I learned from this article is that a person may work at a research institute and write whatever he likes without any reliable basis.

Does it have to be true? No.
Is it OK to hide some truth? Of course.
Does it have to be ethical? No.
Is it OK to mix false information with some true information to mislead the reader? Yes.
Is it OK to promote terror implicitly? Yes.
Do you need to mention many innocent people are already killed including from minorities? No.
Do you need to mention that lots of suicide weapons found? No.
What about human rights violated by Ergenekon? Who cares.
Is it OK to blame innocent people without evidence? Yes.
Is it OK to accuse acquitted people? Sure.
Should you mention that Ergenekon resembles Gladio? No.

Mr. Cagaptay has done a good job on achieving these.

Volunteers of Gulen Movement try very hard for world peace. They are open-minded and respectful to all ideas.

A peaceful world is not peaceful for ill-minded people.

I wrote a lot but then thought the following will suffice:

When it comes to Gulen and his movement, it is all claims without any evidence. The policy is simply propaganda against him.

When it comes to the Ergenekon case, it is all evidence. In fact, the prosecution is prevented to do their job by the generals, high courts, some politicians and media.

This is a hige chance for Turkey to have a real democracy like Turkey. Today, those who support the elitists will be shunned by the history.

it is the elites and the elitists fighting with all their power not to lose their superior position to the people of Turkey. That is why Mr Cagaptay and many others are trying to convince the international politics with these non-sense.

May be with Ergenekon case or with another case in the future. We know something:

There will be a true democracy in Turkey one day, a democracy where all can say what they want, all can live how they wish, all is represented in the government, the law is not blind, the soldiers' main job is to protect the borders.

Finally there is nothing left to discuss. Even prosecutes of the Turkish Army accepted the conspiracy against the Gulen Movement.
Check out the newspapers...

I don't really know how many times such articles have been written against Gulen Movement.
It would not take much time for someone to surface the slanders made in this article if one does some research about Gulen movement and reads several books that he has written. Such slanders have been and will be made against Gulen Movement all the time. However, none of them has been proved yet. I just wish that Mr. Cagaptay would have done some more research before he had written this article.

How could someone write such a biased and unprofessional article in this magazine? It is not based on any evidence but only on speculation. Here is the proof from military:

The military prosecutors from the First Army, after examining the documents that lead to the arrests of a large number of military officers mentioned here, have determined that they are genuine, and that they describe not a military exercise, as alleged by its detractors, but an actual [and highly detailed] coup d'etat plan

see the following link for the news in Turkish:

http://www.sabah.com.tr/Gundem/2010/02/26/askeri_savcilik_balyoz_seminer_degil_darbe_plani

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_TDRDRQDR

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/world/europe/18iht-19oxan-Turkishpreacherprofile.9324128.html?scp=1&sq=fethullah%20gulen&st=cse

I am really disappointed to see Soner Cagaptay’s piece on Turkish politics ("What's Really Behind the Turkey's Coup Arrests") in the web pages of Foreign Policy, a prestigious journal. His article includes so many incorrect facts and assertions against the Gulen movement which do not have empirical basis. It is clear that Cagaptay distorts reality to fit the movement into a place through which his analysis contributes to the continuation of bureaucratic authoritarianism in Turkey. There is no single paragraph in Cagaptay’s article that does not distort reality.

He depicts Gulen movement as “ultraconservative political faction” and argues that the movement aims to secure “the supremacy of Gülen's version of religion over politics, government, education, media, business, and public and personal life.” Established research shows the opposite. Gulen movement is a social movement, not a political one. What distinguishes Gulen is actually his apolitical stance over the years.

For Cagaptay Ergenekon case is a is a “convoluted investigation that so far has produced nothing in the last three years but a record-setting 5,800-page indictment, hundreds of early-morning house raids, and the detention of many prominent Turks, including university presidents and prominent educators such as Kemal Guruz and Mehmet Haberal.” Is this all about Ergenekon? What about thousands of weapons found in the personal properties of these “innocent” people? What about dead bodies killed by Ergenekon-associated people? And what about the evidences which clearly shows military plans for coups? Think of the recent news from Turkey. Even the military institutions approved that Dursun Cicek, a high-ranking military officer, prepared a plan to create chaos in Turkey, w hich would eventually justify military intervention. According to this plan, the planners would put weapons to the houses of Gulen-associated houses to raid against the movement.

Contrary to what Cagaptay says, military is not “a bulwark against religion's domination over politics and government,” it is a bulwark against any sort of freedoms either religious freedoms, or freedom of speech, or further freedoms for the Kurdish and non-Muslim minorities.

Cagaptay’s assertion of Gulen movement-Welfare solidarity against military in mid-1990s reflects Cagaptay’s ignorance at best, his ill-intentioned agenda at worst. Those years, Gulen publicly spoke against Erbakan, which was actually criticized by many as being too state-centric. Cagaptay distorts the facts to present the movement as if it is “shadowy” and “dangerous.”

As Cagaptay himself, even in his ill-intended article, states Gulen was acquitted from all accusations against him.

AKP is not a reincarnation of the Welfare Party. It is not an Islamist party, it is a center-right party, which got the vote of the 47 percent of Turkish electorate in the last elections. The party, which claims to be the continuation of Welfare Party and supported by the leader of the Welfare Party, Erbakan, got less than 3 percent in the last elections (Felicity Party).

By the way, I listened to Cagaptay’s advice and called a Turkish friend on his opinion on the recent arrests. He did not tell me about the weather. He gave his evaluation of the arrests which more or less approves what I wrote in this letter.

As an American student studying the Gulen movement in Turkey, I must object to the descriptions Mr. Cagaptay attributes to the Gulen movement. My experiences with members of the Gulen movement throughout Turkey certainly did not possess even the slightest sense of extremism. These were people, some more religiously devout than others, who valued above all the commonality of humanity. They did not condemn those who condemned them, as Mr. Cagaptay, and they spoke not of exclusivity but of inclusivity. They're hope for the Gulen movement was to unite people, diversified as much as possible. The words of Gulen, the schools of his movement, and the people who place their hope for a better tomorrow are not that of ultraconservatives. "We educate ourselves so that we may better understand people different from ourselves. Only then can war, violence, and conflict be overcome and peace flow forth."-a member of the Gulen movement's response when asked what is the essence of the Gulen movement. May Turkey find peace and democracy, and may the inflammatory remarks of bitter dissidents fall on deaf ears.

Turkey (or with the correct form TURKiYE) has both geopolitical and historical importance right there at between the Asia and Europe. Also most of the people in Turkey is either 'Muslim' or 'Muslim originated'. If you consider all of these aspects of Turkey you can understand what is going on behind the scenes. Me, as a Turkish person living at US reached a result that WHENEVER SOMETHING IS DONE IN FAVOR OF TURKEY ALWAYS SOME ghosts APPEAR AND SAY 'it is done because of this it is done because of that ..bla bla bla (conspiracy theories)'. The conspiracy theorists' favorite issue is Mr. Fethullah Gulen and the GULEN MOVEMENT. Mr. Gulen, whom I and millions believe that, he is a real patriot, is always mentioned with unrelated issues. I think with the ERGENEKON case , TURKiYE had a considerable progress in democracy and justice. Relating with this court's issue with Mr. Gulen is somehow malevolence.

No need to write pages here. a simple sentece is enough. I dont ever remeber being more disapointed in article before, how can such a credible publication as the FP even publish this falsehood.

Yes, Foreign Policy loses credibility with this article. Readers do not need such an article to understand the situation in Turkey. It has been asked to Mr.Gulen many times and he answered that in many ways: ''Muslim cannot be a terrorist and a terrorist cannot be a muslim'' .Gulen and his actions promote PEACE all over the world.

I read the whole article again and again. Either I am not from Turkey or these are happening in somewhere else.

1. There are NO ''UNTOUCHABLES'' in Turkey
2. Two Islamist groups have NOT shared Turkey. It is a 99% Muslim country
3. There is NO movement/organization called FGH which was founded in the 1970s by Fethullah Gülen.
4. Fethullah Gulen is NOT JUST a charismatic preacher who now lives in the United States but remains popular in Turkey.

He is known ALL OVER THE WORLD. PLUS HE WAS CHOSEN THE MOST INTELLECTUAL PERSON OF THE WORLD IN 2008 BY FOREIGN POLICY

See the link for F.Gulen's answers.He doesn't need any of us to defend himself.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2008/08/13/interview_fethullah_guelen

Mr. Cagaptay speaks from a perspective that is far from the American ideal. At the core, the article makes the argument that (1) the Turkish military "opposes AKP and the Gülenists because it sees itself as the virtual guardian of Turkey's secular polity à la Ataturk's vision, serving as a bulwark against religion's domination over politics and government," and (2) the Gulen Movement is a dangerous religious philosophy. Woven into this is an unsubstantiated assertion that the Gulen Movement intimidates opponents.

Think about what this argues: a military coup (which the Turkish military has done many times) is preferable to democracy if it keeps "religious" people (who are assumed to be dangerous) from leadership. Imagine this argument being used in America - would we want our military to overthrow a legitimately elected government in order to keep a faith based group from leadership? For the U.S. we'd be talking about some "Christian democratic" political movement. While I might firmly oppose such an party, American ideals and trust in democracy should override any ideas for a military coup. Unfortunately, Mr. Cagaptay represents the sad perspective too often seen in American power - that we are in favor of democracy, as long as the vote goes the way we want it.

In truth, the Turkish military has overthrown a legitimately elected government on a number of occasions. From all that I have read directly from Rev. Gulen and in conversations with both secular and religious Turks, there is an ardent passion for democracy - even desire for an American style respect for religious expression and pluralism. Why? Because all of this is seen as the only path to a healthy liberal democracy. In simple terms, if you want individual respect for religious expression, it can only thrive in a healthy democracy. I speak with some experience that the Gulen theology is opposed to intimidation and repression.

I cannot speak with authority about the Turkish legal system nor the validity of the case against the accused coup plotters. However, Mr. Cagaptay needs to be asked if he firmly believes in the virtue of democracy - that in a free and fair vote, should the majority - religious, atheist, capitalist or communist - get to run the government until the next free and fair election? Mr. Cagaptay does NOT argue the government is illegitimate. It would seem, he simply fears any group with Muslim ideals (regardless of how open minded or progressive) out of power - even if it means destroying democracy.

Such is a sad, if not overtly pathological, perspective.

Decisions reached without due reflection or proper consultation usually come to nothing.

http://www.fgulen.org

When I read this article, I have thought that it is a bad joke or a nightmare. I tried to wake up. However it is neither a bad joke nor a nightmare. As a Turkish citizen who lives in USA, and a reader of Foreign Policy, I surprised that how such a wrong article is published in such a nice magazine. As a believer of Fethullah Gulen, I completely disagree with Mr. Cagaptay. If this magazine will continue to its biased articles, I will completely stop reading this magazine. I will appreciate if Cagaptay doesn't write any articles that tells a big lie, and I also will appreciate if Foreign Policy doesn't allow these type of articles.

Thanks in advance

This article is a hogwash -has no evidence and is completely biased. On the other side, the files about this case have already piled up to volumes. Come on now, we are talking about thousands of pages with hundreds of evidence. What kind of a mind setting would simply ignore that fact and still protect and defend criminals?

Another interesting thing is, how come so-called objective, honest, and open-minded magazine could even bother publishing such a piece of crap? Don't you have ethics? Enlightenment is a bliss... May you someday taste it.

It is a pity that this extremely biased article by Cagaptay which is full of lies has been published in a respected magazine like Foreign Policy.

I do not know what to correct but just to single out the stand point of the article: It is defending the untouchable position of statusquo against democracy readily accepting that the plotters are innocent.He is not looking at and even mentioning all the evidence discovered by the prosecutors, he is not mentioning the events that has planned on the people, he is not paying respect to the justice at least. All these plots are innocent according to him. Apperently, being part of the statusquo, Cagaptay is just trying to divert the looks toward Mr. Gulen, who is highly respected and the exemplary Muslim scholar to save the vested interest groups who finally has the spotlight on.

This article is misleading and it is distorting the facts about Turkey and what is going on in Turkey nowadays. I though FP was a respectable credible journal. First of all Cagaptay just lies; Gulen is not a political figure, has never been; his 'movement' or 'community' are not political. Cagaptay is just trying to create new targets and he is trying to blur the picture which is getting clearer and clearer day by day. (If you need a scientific and independent scholarly work on Gulen, please read the recent book 'The Gulen Movement: A sociological analysis of a civic movement rooted in moderate islam' by Dr. Helen Rose Ebaugh. Written by someone who actually observed the people who liked Gulen's ideals).
---
Turkey's deep and 'powerful' elites which are everywhere in country's military, buerocracy, media, higher education, courts, etc. have long been the untouchables; that is, they deeply organized and conspired, killed, oppressed 'the other' in Turkey. They wanted to create tensions and even civil war in order to keep themselves more powerful. They opposed liberal and democratic values, they sided with socialism and even communism. They organized and supported coups, they hanged an elected the prime minister in 1960, threatened governments until late 90s. But, after the 80s, Turkey gradually became more liberal, and now, the Turkish middle class became more powerful and they powerfully elected a single-party government which now really represents the public well. This power shift makes the untouchable elites very unhappy. Everyday, new evidence surfaces in Turkey that they wanted to take over the government again, and it is not a surprise. But Turkey's western friends and allies, who previously sided with whatever is powerful (gues who they were) in Turkey, should now be on side with the Turkish People. They should be happy that Turkey is becoming a real democracy, and we all know one cannot be a real democracy if the military does not subject to the elected civilian authority. Please let's not be hypocrites.
The government in Turkey is NOT 'islamist', this is a term created to disinform, a term Cagaptay loves to use. Yes, it is conservative, but not more conservative than the governments in US, Germany or Britain is. The overwhelming majority of Turkish people are moderately conservative, moderately religious people whom value justice, equality, equal opportunity, free market, free business, liberal values, hospitality... You can ask that to 25 million guests who visit Turkey every year. It is time for friends of Turks in the rest of the 'democratic' western hemisphere to side with The Turkish People and support them in their struggle in being full democracy and in cleaning up the corruption by these deep elites who long opressed the people. This is the only way Turkey can reach the civilization level that our great leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk pointed once. He setup the foundations of this republic, by the people, not despite the people and he himself stripped off his military uniform when he was elected the president. He was the one who created the multiparty sytem, he anted Turkey to be a fully democratic nation. But unfortunately, others - who turned into being the deep elites toiday- used him and twisted his ideals and exploited him to empower themselves.
---
FP: Please do not feature Cagaptay's biased, distortive opinios again on your pages. We all know Cagaptay and his employers are linked to the deep elites in Turkey and their interests are being threatened as Turkish prosecuters and justice cleans up the corruption in Turkey.

Dear FP Editor,
My comment is about the article "What's Really Behind Turkey's Coup Arrests?" by Soner Cagaptay, which appeared on FP on Feb 25th.

This article is misleading and it is distorting the facts about Turkey and what is going on in Turkey nowadays. I thought FP was a respectable, credible magazine. First of all Cagaptay just simply lies; Gulen is not a political figure, has never been; his 'movement' or 'community' are not political. Cagaptay is just trying to create new targets and he is trying to blur the picture which is getting clearer and clearer day by day in Turkey. (If you need a scientific and independent scholarly work on Gulen, please read the recent book 'The Gulen Movement: A sociological analysis of a civic movement rooted in moderate islam' by Dr. Helen Rose Ebaugh. Written by someone who actually observed the people who liked Gulen's ideals).
---
Turkey's deep and 'powerful' elites which are everywhere in country's military, buerocracy, media, higher education, courts, etc. have long been the untouchables; that is, they deeply organized and conspired, killed, oppressed 'the other' in Turkey. They wanted to create tensions and even civil war in order to keep themselves more powerful. They opposed liberal and democratic values, they sided with socialism and even communism. They organized and supported coups, they hanged an elected prime minister in 1960, they constantly threatened governments until late 90s. But, after the 80s, Turkey gradually became more liberal, and now, the Turkish middle class became more powerful and they powerfully elected a single-party government which is inpower since 2002, which now really represents majority of the public will. This power shift makes the untouchable elites very unhappy. Everyday, new evidence surfaces in Turkey that the elites wanted to take over the government again, and it is not a surprise. But Turkey's western friends and allies, who previously sided with whatever was powerful (guess who they were) in Turkey, should now be on side with the Turkish People. They should be happy that Turkey is becoming a real democracy, and we all know one cannot be a real democracy if the military does not submit to the will of to the elected civilian authority and hence the will of people. Please let's not be hypocrites here who likes to apply double-standards.
The government in Turkey is NOT 'islamist', this is a term created to disinform, a term Cagaptay loves to use. Yes, it is conservative, but not more conservative than the governments in US, Germany or Britain is. The overwhelming majority of Turkish people are moderately conservative, moderately religious people whom value justice, equality, equal opportunity, free market, free business, liberal values, hospitality... You can ask that to 25+ million guests who visit Turkey every year now. It is time for friends of Turks in the rest of the 'democratic' western hemisphere to side with The Turkish People and support them in their struggle in being full democracy and in cleaning up the corruption by these deep elites who long opressed majority of the people. This is the only way Turkey can reach the civilization level that the great leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk once pointed. He setup the foundations of this republic, by the people, not despite the people, and he himself stripped off his military uniform when he was elected the president. He was the one who created the multiparty sytem, he wanted Turkey to be a fully democratic nation. But unfortunately, others - who turned into being the deep elites today- used him and twisted his ideals and exploited him to empower themselves.
---
FP: Please do not feature Cagaptay's biased, distortive opinios again on your pages. We all know Cagaptay and his employers are linked to the deep elites in Turkey and their interests are being threatened as Turkish prosecuters and justice cleans up the deep corruption in Turkey.

Sincerely,

Haakan Kahramannturk

The author herself is under paranoia and she is blind to some facts. She makes up a personal story and tries to concur from that people in Turkey are in paranoia. Not more than a handful of people in Istanbul even would know about and 'would give a damn' (with her own words on American people's possible reaction to an Indian-genocide bill that would be passed by Turkey) about her little martial arts classes.

For God's sake, Turkey have already had three coups, and one near-coup in late 90s that forced the government to resign and many threatening statements from the military even in 2000s. Apart from these obvious facts, there is growing evidence, unearthed day by day, that the members of the 'Deep State' have been organizing to overthrow the government. There is ammunition and guns being unearthed everywhere in Turkey that the plotters were gathering and they were going to use. Yes, this deep state is a demented, multitentacled (but not-so-secret) alliance of high-level figures in the military, the intelligence services, the judiciary and organized crime. They killed many people, including journalists. They have even ties with the terrorist organization PKK! They would do anything to keep their grasp on their power.

The government of today's Turkey were elected by the near-majority votes of the Turkish people, it is the most representative of the public will among the governments within the last 30 or 40 years, and maybe arguably the most in the Republic's history. This government made Turkey much closer to the rest of the West; by actions: Reforms, increased trade and business, increased tourism, better economy, better infrastructure, better services; better services for all Turkish citizens. This government also did other things that Turkish people have wanted for long but the other governments have long ignored: Developing trade and business with the rest of the neighbors who are not to the West of Turkey. So naturally Turkey's trade and business increased with Iran, too, but not galloping like the author claims. The trade of Turkey to the West of her is still more than 70% of all of her trade.

Turkish people want good relations with their neighbors, not only with the ones to the West and north (Bulgaria, Greece, Romanina, Ukraine, Russia) but also with the ones to the east and south (Georgia, Armenia, Azarbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Cyprus) because this is to Turkish people's benefit economically -especially for the southeastern part of Turkey which is poorer. There are clearly a couple of countries which get disturbed when Turkey's relations with her neighbors to the east improve: Israel is one of them. Israel thinks that if Turkey have good relations with Iran Iraq and Syria, then the relations with Israel will deteriorate. When compared with the benefits of relations with immediate and big neighbors, Turkish people do no have much benefit from having relations with some little country that they do not even share a border with -and a country which violates human rights and constantly draw critisisim from everyone in the world for exterminating the poor Palestinians-. This is what the overwhelming majority of the Turkish people think and government is just reflecting the Turkish public will. So Israel, and other conservative Jewish people (not all) are clearly not happy with what is going on in Turkey: They are not happy with what the Turkish people think. Maybe they should respect Turkish public opinion.

The author is one of them (she is Jewish, a neoconservative, she is the daughter of famous David Berlinksi). Neoconservatives were also behind the Iraq and Afganistan war. They only rhetorically support free economy and democracy, and they support use of military means to 'bring' 'democracy' and 'human rights' to other countries (not for the sake of bringiing democracy of course! For money!). Also, her Jewish background clearly produces bias and she is not independent nor objective on the issue. As a note, I am also biased and subjective: I am a Turkish citizen, just one of the 75 million. I am just one of the many and this is my opinion, I am not claiming to write a column as if I am reporting objectively.

The WSJ should feature more objective, independent and scholarly authors on Turkey.

The author herself is under paranoia and she is blind to some facts. She makes up a personal story and tries to concur from that people in Turkey are in paranoia. Not more than a handful of people in Istanbul even would know about and 'would give a damn' (with her own words on American people's possible reaction to an Indian-genocide bill that would be passed by Turkey) about her little martial arts classes.

For God's sake, Turkey have already had three coups, and one near-coup in late 90s that forced the government to resign and many threatening statements from the military even in 2000s. Apart from these obvious facts, there is growing evidence, unearthed day by day, that the members of the 'Deep State' have been organizing to overthrow the government. There is ammunition and guns being unearthed everywhere in Turkey that the plotters were gathering and they were going to use. Yes, this deep state is a demented, multitentacled (but not-so-secret) alliance of high-level figures in the military, the intelligence services, the judiciary and organized crime. They killed many people, including journalists. They have even ties with the terrorist organization PKK! They would do anything to keep their grasp on their power.

The government of today's Turkey were elected by the near-majority votes of the Turkish people, it is the most representative of the public will among the governments within the last 30 or 40 years, and maybe arguably the most in the Republic's history. This government made Turkey much closer to the rest of the West; by actions: Reforms, increased trade and business, increased tourism, better economy, better infrastructure, better services; better services for all Turkish citizens. This government also did other things that Turkish people have wanted for long but the other governments have long ignored: Developing trade and business with the rest of the neighbors who are not to the West of Turkey. So naturally Turkey's trade and business increased with Iran, too, but not galloping like the author claims. The trade of Turkey to the West of her is still more than 70% of all of her trade.

Turkish people want good relations with their neighbors, not only with the ones to the West and north (Bulgaria, Greece, Romanina, Ukraine, Russia) but also with the ones to the east and south (Georgia, Armenia, Azarbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Cyprus) because this is to Turkish people's benefit economically -especially for the southeastern part of Turkey which is poorer. There are clearly a couple of countries which get disturbed when Turkey's relations with her neighbors to the east improve: Israel is one of them. Israel thinks that if Turkey have good relations with Iran Iraq and Syria, then the relations with Israel will deteriorate. When compared with the benefits of relations with immediate and big neighbors, Turkish people do no have much benefit from having relations with some little country that they do not even share a border with -and a country which violates human rights and constantly draw critisisim from everyone in the world for exterminating the poor Palestinians-. This is what the overwhelming majority of the Turkish people think and government is just reflecting the Turkish public will. So Israel, and other conservative Jewish people (not all) are clearly not happy with what is going on in Turkey: They are not happy with what the Turkish people think. Maybe they should respect Turkish public opinion.

The author is one of them (she is Jewish, a neoconservative, she is the daughter of famous David Berlinksi). Neoconservatives were also behind the Iraq and Afganistan war. They only rhetorically support free economy and democracy, and they support use of military means to 'bring' 'democracy' and 'human rights' to other countries (not for the sake of bringiing democracy of course! For money!). Also, her Jewish background clearly produces bias and she is not independent nor objective on the issue. As a note, I am also biased and subjective: I am a Turkish citizen, just one of the 75 million. I am just one of the many and this is my opinion, I am not claiming to write a column as if I am reporting objectively.

The WSJ should feature more objective, independent and scholarly authors on Turkey.

I posted it to the wrong page... it was meant for another article :)... I just opened too many browser and got indulged in reading many articles I guess...

Is Mr. Cagaptay really an academician who received a PhD degree from an American university? if yes, the American university system must reconsider its credibility and reliability.

As Mr. Cagaptay stated at the beginning of the article "For the last several decades, the Turkish military was untouchable;", it was really like that, no one can touch them. But this is not acceptable in any democratic countries like USA, England, Germany, etc. Now the People of Turkey do want real democracy, secularism (not like in French), basic human rights like
-all people are born free and equal in dignity and rights
-equality without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth or other status
-all people have right to life, liberty and security of person
-all people right to have education, equality before the law and are entitled
without any discrimination to equal protection of the law, and to speech
freely.
The reason why those kinds of issues aroused nowadays in Turkey is that People of Turkey do want get read of any guardianship of any power such as military, judiciary, oligarchic, totalitarian or monarchy. We do want modern democracy, secularism, and freedom.
Fethullah Gulen is a citizen of Turkey, and he has right to ask for democracy, basic human rights, and secularism just like anyone else. He has been struggling with this injustice system in Turkey for almost 55 years in a legal ground without applying any illegal means. His life is the real testimony of what he is doing his people, his country, and humanity as whole.

We all will see who is innocent, honest, humble and serving the humanity in an altruistic way.