Should the Hizmet movement form a political party?

İhsan Yılmaz

Despite the image some have tried to create, we have been writing that the Justice and Development (AKP) and the Hizmet movement are two different entities.

One of them is a political party and the other is a faith-based civil society actor. They have, of course, been on the same page with regard to many sensitive and crucial issues, such as the EU process, democratization, transparency, accountability and so on. However, the movement has always been at a critical distance to both daily political activities and to the AKP; its support has been in principle. Whenever the movement perceived that the AKP was either reluctant on or deviating from the path of democratization, the movement has criticized it. Yet, whenever the movement criticizes the AKP, the party’s staunch supporters and those who follow it blindly in the Turkish media challenge the movement and ask it to form a political party.

How did we step into the missionary threat trap?

Markar Esayan

After the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) assumed office in 2002, the “missionary threat” was brought to the agenda of the National Security Council (MGK) out of the blue.

This council had been acting just like a shadow cabinet as it was dominated by top brass commanders and enjoyed powers and authorities that were nearly equal and even superior to those of the government under Law No. 2945. The Secretariat General was the mastermind behind this organization. The decisions made mainly by MGK’s military members would be imposed on civilian members, i.e., the top government executives. In a MGK preliminary meeting held in the fall of 2003 when the ruling AK Party was focusing on promoting the country’s bid to become a full member of the European Union, the “threats from missionaries and non-Muslim minorities” were listed as priority issues to be discussed.

What is wrong with the Western media?

İhsan Yılmaz

Major media outlets in the English-speaking world have increasingly been publishing one-sided, biased, anti-Justice and Development Party (AKP) and anti-Gülen pieces. I am not sure if it is just a coincidence, but the frequency of these biased pieces has increased since the “one minute” incident at Davos.

I am critical of Jewish conspiracy theories that explain everything and also claim that Muslims are never mistaken. Nevertheless, that does not mean that a Jewish lobby that advocates for Israel, despite its fatal mistakes and injustices, does not exist. Nor does it mean that the Israeli national intelligence agency, MOSSAD, does not kill people in other countries and engage in all sorts of operations. These are known facts and not conspiracy theories. Sometimes conspiracy theories actually dilute and smokescreen the facts.

Double propaganda

Abdülhamit Bilici

I do not know if you felt the same reading it, but believe me, a column by Etyen Mahcupyan, “Hrant’s parasites,” made me relieved because it demonstrated that I had not lost my mind. I had started questioning my mental integrity in the face of double standards by certain people who have raised their voices because the court did not make any reference to the existence of an organized network behind the Dink murder and did not pay any attention to the Ergenekon terrorist organization, which the evidence at hand suggests is a clandestine organization responsible for many murders.

Short and long-term goals of participants in the Gülen Movement

fgulen.org

What are the short- and long-term goals of participants in the Gülen Movement?

All the short-term goals of participants involve either improving the quality or extending the range of the services offered by the Movement.

The long-term goals include self-improvement and earning God’s pleasure through such services. Interestingly, some of the short- and long-term goals are the same. For example, participants may aim to improve their own qualifications so as to offer a better service, or to serve a greater number of people. Their goals do not relate only to instrumental objectives, such as seeking social status for themselves, or only for a particular community and network, but are more universal in nature. For example, they may wish to spread feelings of love and tolerance, or teach the capacity for dialogue between people who see themselves as different.

Ilıcak: Gülen Movement has been used to undermine Ergenekon trial

Yonca Poyraz Doğan

A veteran journalist has said that she tries to shed light on attempts to cover up and manipulate the trials concerning Ergenekon -- a clandestine crime network that has alleged links within the state and is suspected of plotting to topple the government -- OdaTV, the Hrant Dink murder and the Action Plan Against Reactionaryism.

Nazlı Ilıcak, author of the new book “Her Taşın Altında ‘The Cemaat' mi Var?” (Is the “The Movement” Behind Everything?), which was published by Doğan Books, told Today's Zaman for Monday Talk that those probes and trials were presented as if they were a conspiracy instigated by the Gülen movement through manipulative or misleading media reports.

US law professor has no doubt Gülen trial in Turkey was political

Akın Karagülle

James C. Harrington

James C. Harrington(*), director of the Texas Civil Rights Project and a law professor at the University of Texas, wrote a book titled “Wrestling with Free Speech, Religious Freedom, and Democracy in Turkey: The Political Trials and Times of Fethullah Gülen” on the trial of renowned Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen in Turkey, which ended with his acquittal being upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals in 2008.

In an indictment he drafted on Aug. 30, 2000, then-Ankara State Security Court (DGM) Chief Prosecutor Nuh Mete Yüksel filed a lawsuit against Gülen with the Ankara 2nd DGM requesting his conviction under Article 7/1 of Counterterrorism Law No. 3713.