Just three weeks into the new year, Turkey’s parliament held a vote on whether to remove the immunity given to four previous ministers so they could be prosecuted in the Turkish Supreme Court over multi-million dollar corruption allegations. The basis for the vote lay in the battle for political power between Fetullah Gulen and President (and former Prime Minister) Erdogan, which had been ongoing since mid-December 2013.
Fetullah Gulen is a Turkish former imam, Islamic opinion leader, and founder of the Gulen movement. The movement was created in the 1960s, and has grown stronger since that time as its supporters have embraced its pacifist, contemporary and dialogue-based preachings. The movement has also gained enormous financial and political influence in the last fifty years.
Its main target area was education institutions. Most movement schools are private and are spread over 140 countries. There are 300 schools in Turkey and over 1000 schools worldwide, with a total enrolment of more than two million students. The schools are run by the movement’s members, and it is not surprising that they have been known to influence students with the movement’s preachings.
More surprising is how easily they have influenced other aspects of society. The movement has either set up or been heavily involved in 10 media organisations, most notably Samanyolu TV, Zaman and Cihan. Gulenist supporters have also formed business unions, lobbying groups and think-tanks, along with Bank Asya in 1996.
Fetullah Gulen has been criticised for his influence in politics and for being perceived as a threat to the secular nature of Turkey. In 1999, Gulen fled to the American state of Pennsylvania after the Turkish government charged him with attempting to set up an Islamist state in Turkey. After he left the country, videotapes were released of Gulen saying:
“The existing system is still in power. Our friends, who have positions in legislative and administrative bodies, should learn its details and be vigilant all the time so that they can transform it and be more fruitful on behalf of Islam in order to carry out a nationwide restoration. However, they should wait until the conditions become more favourable. In other words, they should not come out too early.”
The Gulen movement doubled its power during the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) – the government in which Erdogan was Prime Minister. Between 2003 and 2013, Erdogan’s government gave numerous Gulen members positions of administrative and legislative power in Turkey.
The educational institutions of the movement were actively supported by the government. Judicial and police appointments were made from the Gulen membership base. Pro-Gulen businesses increased their profits, government ministers defended Gulen, and Fetullah Gulen and his followers reciprocated by fully supporting Erdogan and his party both in person and through their media organisations.
Then, in 2012, the government decided to shut down weekend tutoring centres – a multi-billion dollar industry in which the Gulenist movement has strong involvement. The following year, on 17 December 2013, an investigation was initiated into alleged corruption involving bureaucrats, ministers, mayors and family members of the ruling Justice and Development Party.
These announcements led to widespread protests and calls for the resignation of the government led by Prime Minister Erdogan. It was later revealed that the phones of senior government ministers, including the Prime Minister, had been tapped. The conversations were later released on YouTube and Twitter, with Erdogan admitting that some of the recordings were indeed true despite earlier dismissing the clips as fake.
Unsurprisingly, the four ministers offered their resignations soon afterwards whilst their sons, along with numerous bureaucrats and businessmen, were arrested. Millions of dollars were found and confiscated at their homes. Following the investigation, Erdogan accused the Gulenist movement of overtaking the government through its judicial and legislative influence.
It escalated into a political ‘witch hunt’ in which everybody deemed or suspected to be part of the movement was suppressed. Thousands of police were arrested or reappointed to new locations, the two prosecutors behind the investigation were dismissed, and more than 150 prosecutors and judge were reappointed to different positions or locations.
The Institution of Science of Technology of Turkey also went through a transformation, whilst laws were passed to increase government control over the judicial and police system, and managers of the aforementioned media organisations were arrested – though all arrested from the corruption scandal have been released.
On January 21 this year, members of Turkey’s parliament voted against removing the immunity of four previous ministers, failing to reach the 276 vote minimum required for the unprecedented move to succeed. Although the movement and Fetullah Gulen himself reject the claims and accuse Erdogan of conspiring to cover up corruption, serious questions remain as to the true power of the Gulenist movement, what it gained from the decisions of the Erdogan administration, and ultimately the movement’s push to destablise the government itself.