March 3, 2012

Does the Gülen movement securitize the Kurdish question?

Ali H. Aslan

Turkey's highly polarized political climate is flooded with conspiracy theories on any given topic. Hence, facts are often lost amid speculations. Recently, a frequent target not only in Turkey but also the West has been the Gülen (Hizmet) movement.

One of the most repeated speculations nowadays is that the recent National Intelligence Agency (MİT) controversy happened mainly because the Gülen movement and its supporters within the state prefer security solutions to the Kurdish question, whereas the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is pro-dialogue and negotiates with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Such simplistic approaches to what is actually a very complicated situation do a disservice to the truth. But more and more people are buying into them in Turkey and in the West. Speculations are finding their way to even the most serious intellectual settings, such as an event hosted by the Stimson Center in Washington last week.