The [Gulen] movement was a curtain

Yonca Kaya Şahin

When the AK Party came in power in 2002, it lacked the qualified staff it needed to rule.

The movement stepped in at this point and served the party`s need.

Actually the need was met by the members of the movement who settled in those governmental positions by “precaution” that today those party members tease of.

The faithful people of Anatolia who were alienated for many years, educated and trained themselves with the scope given by the “leader” of the movement.

They sacrificed and worked a lot in order to get to those governmental positions.

They got to these positions with their great effort and labor.

They utilized these positions for God`s sake, for their homeland and their nation.

They abandoned their families, lives just to save the people of this nation who suffered a lot.

Then came the AK Party. They were part of everyday people, delivering proudly the mission of representation.

The state, since its foundation, has never been for the public as it is now.

The bureaucracy, judiciary, security, military and other officials that is associated with the movement became the major staff source for AK Party.

It was the important partner in Turkey’s democratization journey.

As it seems now, the movement has also become a curtain for AK Party in a lot of matters.

The movement’s pioneering steps have been so great and important that it covered the dirty politics knowing or unknowingly.

If there would be a reaction to the movement, it should be due to this…

Think of a house which has a very nice and functional curtain. The curtain prevents the inside to be seen. At the same time it makes the house look very beautiful.

Naturally, it prevents the inside of the house to be seen…

You can’t see the what’s behind the curtain.

Think of the party as the house and the movement as the curtain…

Once the movement removed itself from between -or was removed by the government- suddenly, just as removing the curtain which was obscuring the inside of the house, real AK Party started to show.

Once the movement removed itself, everyone started to see all of the dirty politics, aggressive policies, wrong and panic laws.

You see, Ak Party’s repressive and authoritarian tendencies are not features that came later, they are only the facts that people started to see after the movement curtain disappeared.

In order to understand this, apart from everything else, it will be sufficient to only look at the laws passed and changes made within the last 5 months…

Indeed it was the best for the movement.

Even though it seems like the Movement- Ak Party separation became clear after December 17, it is known that the government has started purges since 2010.

This date may be called as the point of no return for the relations between them. In this process, movement has been treated unjustly.

There has been no limit on the insults, defamation, slanders and libels towards the movement. And it is still ongoing…

People started labeling the others as parallel if they have issues with them.

The guilty attached his/her guilt to the movement by calling it “the parallel structure”.

The ones who wants to be promoted by stepping on the movement just for the sake of their political career, stepped over the values of faith and the ethics.

The overall nation is sacrificed for the so ugly illusory setup.

That were hard times for the movement, perhaps much harder days will come too…

But I think these days will be rewarding for the movement that serves humanity over 160 countries.

Because for the last couple years, Erdogan and AK Party are seen to take oppressive, authoritarian and Islamist way.

Being associated with the Erdogan’s regime would put the movement’s institutions in hardship whose job is trying to explain Islam in the societies that have serious Islamophobic tendencies.

Both Erdogan’s personal attempts and the ostracism towards movement’s overseas institutions by means of the embassies has en-rooted the perception that the movements is independent of the regime in Turkey.

We will see that this separation comes with the benefits for the continuity of the movement’s overseas activities, hopefully.

Published [in Turkish] on RotaHaber, 05 May 2014, Monday
English version retrieved from http://hizmetnews.com/12600/gulen-movement-shade/, 05 June 2014, Thursday