Journalists and Writers Foundation's statement [on arrest warrant issued for Mr. Gulen]

Journalists and Writers Foundation

It is a well-known fact that then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had sent Bülent Arınç to Mr. Fethullah Gülen to give him the message, "We are ready to do anything you want us to do," and that he had called on Mr. Gülen to return to the country to "put an end to homesickness" in the witness of tens of thousands of spectators in a stadium.

However, in the wake of the graft and bribery scandals that went public on December 17 and 25, 2013, resulting in the resignation of four ministers who were implicated in these scandals, then-Prime Minister Erdoğan, who is now President, abruptly started to lynch Mr. Gülen publicly, and he recently called him a terrorist, without any evidence to support his case. Currently, he is trying to get the Interpol issue a red notice about Mr. Gülen.

About one year ago, he had confessed that this claim and other charges --not believed by any sane and fair person-- are part of the project of creating a suitable legal infrastructure as needed, and hurriedly passed bills which are found unconstitutional by prestigious jurists, subjugating the judiciary to himself and establishing courts with questionable independence. In the end, he used a soap opera to invent a terrorist organization leader out of Mr. Gülen and make the court issue an arrest warrant about Mr. Gülen.

Given the existing norms of international law, it is unlikely for the Interpol General Secretariat to issues red notice about Mr. Gülen and for the US to accept the extradition request.

Court decisions on demand

The project court's bespoke decision is tainted with unlawfulness and illegality in all respects. The fact that they deliberately opted to use this method which is doomed to fail indicates that this notice will be used solely for propaganda purposes and to engineer public perceptions. It is crystal clear that during the election rally, they will say: "We want the US to extradite him, but the US didn't hand him over to us because he is their man."

The democratic international public didn't find it any surprising. Actually, this is exactly what can be expected from a ruling party which ruthlessly banned Twitter and YouTube in an effort to curtail any discussion of its corrupt practices within the framework of the freedom of expression and which ordered the police to harshly meddle with the peaceful protests in İstanbul's Gezi Park, causing deaths and injuries and which label Berkin Elvan as a terrorist and make the crowds woo his mother during the rallies, and which has lost its respect for rule of law so as to declare Çarşı, the fan group of the Beşiktaş Soccer Club, and which has lost its self-possession.

By refusing to return to his precious home country --which is now turning into a lawless land-- despite the fact that he had been acquitted of charges against him, Mr. Gülen proved once again to be prudent and foresighted person with his motto, "never make things easier for cruel people." If Mr. Gülen had been staying in one of the anti-democratic countries like ours rather than in the US, he would certainly have suffered from a host of victimizations.

Dark days are precursors of bright mornings

It is our hope that Turkey will soon become a country which fully implements principles of democracy, justice, rule of law, accountability, transparency, human rights, equal citizenship, freedoms and peaceful coexistence and become a model for Western countries in this respect and that it will emerge as a reliable sanctuary for the victims of other nations instead of oppressing its own citizens who are forced to emigrate to other countries.

We, as the Journalists and Writers Foundation, are fully convinced that our country will soon get over this process that stirs up problems with democracy, rule of law, economy and international community. We respectfully announce for the national and international public that we will continue to exert our efforts in line with the messages our Honorary President Gülen has been sending for about 50 years within the scope of universal values including social peace, lack of violence, and the fight against all forms of discrimination.

Published on Journalists and Writers Foundation, 24 December 2014,