The archive came for rescue just when I was thinking to myself “I recall what have been recently written against Hizmet from somewhere.” The people who are attracted to Fethullah Gulen’s teachings and trying to do a service have always faced similar accusations in every period of time.
The claims persist despite the countless judicial examinations and verdicts one after another by Court of Appeal. Although the claimers’ names change over time, the claims remain more or less the same. Let me refresh your memories with a time travel in the past 20 years so that you can make a comparison with today’s.
Not surprisingly, I will start with the former prosecutor at the abolished State Security Court, Nuh Mete Yuksel. I am referring to the prosecutor who found “serious criminal evidence” in the allegations he had personally investigated and dismissed five years ago, and filed a lawsuit based on them. I am not sure whether Feb 28th’s lynching or the tape found at CEV (Contemporary Education Foundation) office played a role in this overturn. Yet, here’s what the prosecutor Yuksel put in the indictment when filing the lawsuit previously acquitted three times at the court of appeal: By ideological means and maintaining his legal status, with his considerable financial power; Fethullah Gulen intends to build up a young, educated base through the foundations, schools and university preparation centers, and have his followers proliferate within the entire state positions, ministry national education and the police. He recognized that it would be daunting to start out fighting against the state to be able to achieve his goals and therefore sought building up an alternative system employing a compatible mechanism, rather than overthrowing the existing one.
Maybe I should have started with the magazine Aydinlik which periodically headlines “Gulenists infiltrated into the state.” Its January 10th 1999 cover was circulated for a long time and periodically revived by its associates in media. Let’s review the news article with the headline “Gulenists seized the police” “How the largest Nurcu group, the Gulenists, have proliferated within the national police department has been presented in a report to the senior state officials. The report Isci Party was handed in details the Gulenist mechanism within the police. It also includes the precautions the movement took in Feb 28th period. Isci Party deputy-chair Hasan Yalcin has submitted the 10-page, “Fethullah Gulen Community and the Police” document to Ministry of Internal Affairs for further action.” Doesn’t it sound familiar to you too?
It would be unfair to leave out the daily Star’s lion share. I’m referring to the Star then leaded by Fatih Cekirge and Yilmaz Ozdil. Following belongs to Star:
“Star accessed “the shocking list” which was issued by the respective state departments on backward movements in the headlines in Feb 28th 1997 period, which shattered our country, and submitted it to Ministry of Internal Affairs. It was revealed that some of the names listed to take further action on were suspended as intended. Among those suspended are provincial police chiefs as well, as Star has found out. One of the deputy-chiefs listed in the report has been appointed to Police Academy. Totally, the list includes 87 names found out through investigations by respective state departments.”Star crowned its coverage with “The Gulenist list at MGK (National Security Council)” a few days later. It was the daily Sabah which bid the highest by headlining “Execution Sought”, at the lynching auction against Hizmet in Feb 28th period on print and broadcast media. So, am I wrong to ask: “Are these clones of Nuh Mete Yuksel?”
Published [in Turkish] on Zaman, 3 September 2013, Tuesday
