Interview with the Journalists and Writers Foundation Chairman Mustafa Yeşil: [Summary]

Interview with the Journalists and Writers Foundation Chairman Mustafa Yeşil: Questioning the Gülen Movement: Truths, Lies, and Conspiracies

The Fethullah Gülen Movement, gemeinschaft (cemaat) as it’s referred to commonly or Hizmet (The Service) as they call themselves, is currently one of the most debated movements in Turkey and throughout the world. For many, this Movement is one of the most dangerous and sinister movements because it seeks to penetrate specific occupations in the bureaucracy and has an enormous resources and network at its disposal. The movement is a shadow, a reign of terror that’s hard to break down, that raises its own generations within its institutions, which provides it with continuous contact with people from childhood to adulthood. According to others, it’s a modern welfare movement that welcomes everybody with love, compassion and sincerity. The Movement fights against ignorance all around the world, reaches and brings service to people who are forgotten by the governments with their volunteers, and helps enrich their morality with Islam and material worlds with their modern institutions and instruments.

There are many people who wish to and protect it, while there are many who seek to criticise or destroy the Hizmet. In Turkey, after AK Party formed its first government in 2002, Hizmet grew more and their names started to be mentioned as the main actor besides the government behind every good or bad work. They supported AK Party in many fields with their human capital and corporate potentials and AK party supported Hizmet in kind. In Turkey, they have always been mentioned as the coalition partner of the single-party government that AK Party formed. However, after 2011 General Elections, tension started to arise between the AK Party and its Prime Minister Erdoğan and Gülen Movement. This tension finally exploded because of the corruption operations that started in 17th December of 2013. The corruption operations, during which the sons of three ministers were arrested, were going to be followed by expanded investigations including other ministers, businessmen, and bureaucrats. However, a “state crisis” broke out because the police didn’t follow the warrant of arrest from the prosecutor, and Prime Minister Erdoğan stopped the operations by first reassigning ten ministers in his cabinet, followed by placing the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) under the authority of Minister of Justice and by removing or replacing many prosecutors and judges. He accused the Gülen Movement which he always praised for 11 years, of establishing a “parallel state” and being a very dangerous ‘gang’ for Turkey and even the world. Some government officials claimed that Gülen Movement was the ‘power behind the Ergenekon and Balyoz operations’ and ‘they conspired against Turkish Army’ and although the cases were closed with prison sentences, they brought the possibility of retrial up to public attention. Opposing statements and accusations coming from some people who are considered as the Movement’s spokesmen continued although these were declared to be defensive by the Movement supporters in media; and 11 years of grand coalition between the AK Party and Gülen Movement was over as a dirty war manifested itself. Top government officials of AK Party government joined the discourse against the Gülen movement and its institutions, and even made further accusations than that of Prime Minister Erdoğan; the Gülen Movement became the only agenda topic of Turkey overnight. although some suggested that AK party tried to cover up the corruption operations and change the agenda, it is obvious that power relations are damaged and consumed irreversibly because of the claims made. There are also people who claim that Gülen Movement wasn’t that strong and that Erdoğan used it to establish the ‘one-man’ authority in the country.

To further delve into this ongoing public debate, the Centre for Policy and Research on Turkey (Research Turkey) conducted an interview with Mustafa Yeşil, who is the Chairman of Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), who is one of the most important spokesmen of the Fethullah Gülen Movement, and talked about Gülen Movement, analysed its content, aims and codes, and evaluated Turkey’s agenda. GYV is a very important institution and the statements of foundation’s chairman are significant because within thousands of Movement institutions, this is the only institution where Fethullah Gülen has an organic and official link to. Fethullah Gülen is the honorary president of GYV, and the GYV is also an institution that gives the most explicit and direct answers to the accusations about Gülen Movement that takes place in the media. We talked about the origin of Movement, its principles and primary features, Fethullah Gülen’s place in the Movement and some of the most-debated statements and the definition of a “Gülen Institution” with GYV chairman Mustafa Yeşil. We evaluated the Movement’s: monetary resources, ‘parallel state and gang’ accusations, relations with AK Party and other parties, corruption operations, the recent legal and governmental modifications, and the reassignment of police officers and prosecutors, that is current hotly discussed. We many important questions regarding the Gülen Movement without any reservations and we are presenting the full and uncensored interview to our readers as a mark on history.

Summary of the Interview [Full Text of the Interview is available here]

“Hizmet is a faith-based movement, gets its strength and motivation from belief and it’s a civil organisation that sees diversity as richness and welcomes it”

“Hizmet is a community that is formed by volunteers, who have no certain expectations and don’t do anything under compulsion and constraint, who participates voluntarily and can leave whenever they want”

“Hizmet is an apolitical movement. However, it affects politics; as how every civil organization wants to affect politics positively or according to their own projects”

“Fethullah Gülen’s calling people to vote ‘Yes’ in 2010 Constitution Referendum is a statement for a social cause that concerns everybody, more than supporting a political party”

“Hizmet doesn’t have an aim to design political grounds; it does not do political engineering. However, a civil organisation, supports positive actions and opposes negative actions in its relations with the government”

“Gülen Movement does not follow any political party; it has never established a political party and will never form a party. This movement never aimed to seize the state”

“Hizmet carries out all the works with consensus and common sense. Therefore, there is no ‘one-man’ policy in Hizmet”

“Hizmet is pluralist on the basis of principles. For example, in Journalists and Writers Foundation Platforms there are Agnostics, Jewish and Armenian people”

“In 50 years of Hizmet activity, there have been people who accused it about blackmailing but they could never present a proof or example. Nobody was exposed to violence or threat”

“‘Whoever touches [them] burns’ claims or blaming Gülen Movement for some arrests are slanders to break people’s sympathy for Hizmet. Some have become instruments to this purposely or unintentionally, and sometimes by being misled”

“Fethullah Gülen said ‘don’t build mosques, build schools’. One of the most important principles of Hizmet is education. Because the main problems between people arise from ignorance. Hizmet never tries to standardise people within its educational activities.”

“Democracy is a sine qua non condition for Hizmet. It doesn’t mean that it meddles with domestic affairs but it pays attention to democratisation of the countries”

“It’s not true that people can’t leave the Gülen Movement or if they leave they are left for solitude, our structure is based on voluntariness”

“ ‘Seizing the state’ and ‘funds from unknown sources ’ accusations are not true”

“Gülen Movement is based on love, compassion, sincerity, honesty, living healthy and devotion”

“In Gülen Movement nobody is questioned, threatened or interrogated by someone else. Everybody is accountable to their conscience, if they’re to be punished, they punish themselves. The punishment is ‘working even more’”

“In Gülen Movement, the commitment is to the principles and the case, not to a person”

“Migration is an important value in Hizmet. Therefore, people move from country to country, city to city with their families. For example, even though I am married, I have changed 20 houses in 20 years”

“Gülen identified three problems in here and developed all his projects on these problems. First one is ignorance, second is separation and secession, and the third one is poverty. He said education against ignorance, dialogue and reconciliation against secession and social aid against poverty”

“Gülen Movement’s development wasn’t easy. After Gülen’s call, first school could only be opened 17-18 years later, in 1982-83”

“1980 coup d’état had no support for the Gülen Movement”

“There is no Gülen Institution or Gülen Schools. The only institution Gülen has an official link is Journalists and Writers Foundation (YGV), he is our honorary president”

“Gülen Movement is not organized in some occupations such as in juridical areas, military or the police. It is wrong to compare it with Illuminati. We can’t tell people what they can or can’t become. People choose their occupations as they want”

“Gülen Movement has no problems with Atatürk or Republican regime. Atatürk embodies our values as well. As with Atatürk so does Pir Sultan Abdal, Yunus and Mevlana too; each is a flower of this land with a different taste, smell, and colour.”

“Fethullah Gülen never said ‘apostasy is punishable by death’. However, a “fiqh” exists regarding this. What is meant there is ‘treason to the state’”.

“We are not a part of moderate Islam project. That may be an imputation. I think, Islam does not come in moderate, warm, cold ways. Islam is a religion with very open and clear measures, principles, and teachings.”

“Hizmet Movement will continue to exist the same way even after Hocaefendi (“the teacher,” the respectful term his followers use to refer to Fethullah Gülen)Service works through principles and values, and not through people”

“Hizmet Movement was tried to be infiltrated by various intelligence organisations; however, those with different intentions are always detected. There are several examples of infiltrators who said: ‘I came with this intention of infiltration, could not see any opportunities and I am leaving’. Hizmet is open and transparent”

“When the issue about closing private schools, Hocaefendi, secretly, sent people to Prime Minister, to President suggesting to return from this mistake, and offered compromise. Hizmet, in the beginning, never wanted to bring these events into a matter of public debate”

“We try to understand our being accused regarding the issues about ending the Army, Ergenekon Trial or government related topics. We never wanted to be included in these matters or be pointed at regarding them”

“We actually never made statements that will damage Ak Party; we only responded to tell the truth when we were exposed to the slanders and lies of the media supporting the government. But Ak Party lost their temper”

“We kept our silence not because we feared or wanted to retreat or engage in secret bargaining, but to prevent the peace and order of the country to be broken further”

“Fethullah Gülen addresses primarily to his followers in his so-called curses saying that if our people did something wrong I am referring to them but actually he was also addressing to those others who were out of Hizmet and really did wrong and blamed us”

“However, we saw a reaction that is unprecedented in the history of Republic from Ak Party; suddenly the locations of police officers who questioned laws passed regarding secrecy of the investigation; prosecutors were made involve; approximately 2,000 people were replaced and executions of the prosecutor were not activated. This means legal sanctions were disabled, and this put the law on hold. Furthermore, the judiciary fell under the rule of execution by a disastrous effect of tying the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors to the Ministry of Justice. After all these things happened there is only question: ‘what is going on?’”

“If the Prime Minister or the political power were targeted as claimed, the way to expose it is to make legal system function. But they destroyed it”

“’Parallel state’, ‘gangs’ do not exist just because Prime Minister claims they do. This should be proven, and the proof is done through laws. When you suspend the law, how are you going to prove it?”

“A narrow oligarchic cadre surrounding the Prime Minister restrained him. Unfortunately, they convinced the Prime Minister to reach a false belief and conclusion on how the community is dangerous and it is impossible to be active in politics in this country unless the community is defeated”.

“The claims regarding the cemaat such as ‘gang, organization, parallel structuring, and infiltration into police department’ were made also in 28 February period. Even in that (military) tutelage period, no documents could be found. The Movement, in that process, was acquitted of the claims regarding parallel state, organization, gang, infiltration, forming religious structures”

“Ak Party, for 11 years, praised the services saying how important they are. Until yesterday, for 11 years in power, there was not one complaint but cemaat became demonised right after the corruption cases? This structure turned into venom suddenly? If it did, shouldn’t this be exposed?”

“If Hizmet is venom, let us destroy it cooperatively together. But, whether Hizmet became poisonous or your mind is poisoned, should be differentiated”

“Present political power takes its power, authority from existing constitutional rights and Law. Today, if I am listening to you as the Prime Minister, I do so because you exist based on Law. But today you suspended the Law from which you take your power. This, actually, is destruction of a political power’s own field of legitimacy”

“I think this is a ’state crisis’, this has nothing to do with civil structure. Today in this country, unfortunately, the structure that takes its power, equity from democratic ground, in the face of corruptions suspended the Law, not letting it function. Prosecutors give instructions; police does not fulfill its armband duty”

“Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are disturbed by the Hizmet, because people who have been educated cannot be directed or used by the PKK. The PKK fears and worries about not being able to take educated people to the mountains, hills, caves”

“In Northern Iraq, where the Kurdish people claim a Kurdistan, there are 30 schools, universities of Hizmet, and the Kurdish people there support those schools so much that I have not seen such support in other countries”

“There is no convergence between Gülen Movement and Republican People’s Party (CHP). Hizmet does not want to engage with political parties. There is no support for Sarıgül in İstanbul, Hizmet prefers to maintain its supra-party position, and it does not instruct their people or the sympathizers to vote for a party or a person”

“The consulters influencing the Prime Minister, the oligarchic cadre surrounding him, managed to create new enemies by playing his fear of losing political power. The elders have a saying as ’Mabeyn has his brother strangled’. This is the scene today”

“A period when Erdoğan is conflicting with Erdoğan begins. Next Erdoğan is consuming the previous Erdoğan.”

“Islamic communities got politicised, the bureaucracy gets politicised, people got politicised exceptionally; everyone started to converge through political values as if politics is the highest value”

“The Prime Minister’s use of language of alienating half the country to ensure the support of the other half the country is a polarising approach. Statements such as ‘We are hardly keeping fifty percent of this country at their homes’, really created a hostility and hatred through politics among people who were able to sit together or bond”

“Ten years later, I dream of a Turkey that is more democratic, more advanced, more integrated with the world, and more emancipatory. I think, it would be great if this horse can find a good rider, it could go further for a perfect structure”

[Full Text of the Interview is available here]

Source:
Research Turkey (February, 2014), “Interview with the Journalists and Writers Foundation Chairman Mustafa Yeşil: Questioning the Gülen Movement: Truths, Lies, and Conspiracies”, Vol. III, Issue 2, pp.6-34, Centre for Policy and Research on Turkey (ResearchTurkey), London, Research Turkey. (http://researchturkey.org/?p=4779)