In a Quagmire of Heresy and Marginal Westernism

I drew attention to the Gülen Movement’s “fearless” contributions to the international campaign aimed at the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 operations. I said that the members of this movement positioned themselves as “Turkey’s new Westerners” by using Western critical discourse employed by Kemalists. After accusing the AK Party of radical Islamism and being a supporter of al-Qaeda and DAESH, the Gülen Movement moved into a new phase with the attempted coup on July 15. This is a phase where a movement, which is described as a terrorist organization by all social segments in Turkey, has consolidated its heretical and substitute position as a proxy. Moreover, it is being dragged into a kind of marginal Westernism, which is the final point of alienation from its home country. Its moderate, dialogist and globalist appearance will not be able to curtail this course. In fact, with this attempted coup, the Gülenist Terror Organization (FETÖ) lost Turkey irreversibly. The only indicator of this is not the liquidation of FETÖ affiliates from public institutions. More importantly, even AK Party opponents in Turkey reached a great consensus that July 15 was a coup attempt by the FETÖ. Even circles that strongly oppose Erdoğan did not attempt to disturb this consensus. As such, anti-Erdoğan discourse inside the country has been significantly undermined through democratic and civil resistance to the attempted coup.

The Gülen Movement, the legitimacy of which has completely disappeared, has been left with nothing other than further putting its members and diaspora at the disposal of Western intelligence agencies. FETÖ leader Fethullah Gülen’s recent statement in The New York Times that “[a]t a time when Western democracies are searching for moderate Muslim voices, I and my friends in the Hizmet movement have taken a clear stance against extremist violence,” suggests that they side with the West, proves my arguments.

Gülen continues to play his last trump card, which claims that Erdoğan is a dictator, by blatantly saying that his movement still has value serving the West and, for this reason, he should not be extradited. The discourse has been that Erdoğan is working for one-man rule and is executing a counter coup. Gülen has clung tightly to this course, which is the only element that works in the West’s intentional anti-Turkey campaign.

As the confessions of coup-makers come to the light, the Gülen Movement’s moderate appearance has significantly collapsed. It is no secret that a radical hardcore in this movement killed our people with tank and helicopter fire.

The purification of public institutions is not enough for the fight against the FETÖ. The politicians have the task of removing the Gülen Movement from its radical and heretical structure. Confessions that expose the true color of the FETÖ must be encouraged. It will be effective in undermining radicalization if many figures seceding from the Gülen Movement follow in the footsteps of Latif Erdoğan and Hüseyin Gülerce, who were former followers of Gülen.

Obviously, from now on, loyalty to the Gülen Movement will mean the agency of foreign intelligence institutions inside the country and the fearless militancy of the diaspora outside of the country. Both positions can only be legitimized by a more heretical approach in the world of individuals. The Gülen Movement, which turned to a world of hierarchy, illegal eavesdropping and espionage activities, even before it was declared to be a terrorist organization, has the potential to produce the traumas of more radical preferences after the attempted coup.

There is a need to increase the number of those who will say no to the organization’s leader who markets his rootlessness, heresy and marginal Westernism as migration.

[Daily Sabah, July 30, 2016]