Plan to finish off the Hizmet movement

Erhan Başyurt, Bugün

It seems that some groups have planned to finish off the Hizmet movement, which was inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, and start a conflict between the movement and the ruling AK Party.

They are trying to portray the movement as the mastermind behind all the controversial issues in the country and incite the government against the movement in order to achieve their goals. The government wants to shut down prep schools belonging to members of Hizmet, but those members are exercising their right to raise objections to the plan. And all of a sudden, those members have been accused of “establishing a parallel state,” “being worse than the Kurdish Communities Union [KCK]” and “trying to create an AK Party without Prime Minister Erdoğan.” A major corruption and bribery investigation is being carried out. Four ministers who were allegedly involved in corruption and bribery have resigned from office. And claims emerge that Gülen's parallel state is behind this investigation. But don't those who take bribes have any sins?

Published on Today's Zaman, 19 January 2014, Sunday