Gulen Movement manipulates the Turkic Country of Azerbaijan

Will the Gulen Movement successfully use the Oil Rich Turkic nation of Azerbaijan and control the oil wealth?

Turkish public sensitivities and political outreach towards the Muslims of the Caucasus region have always been there. However, this general sympathy has been channeled into more concrete involvement and has had more effect in recent years. More than 20 years after Azerbaijan’s independence from the Soviet Union, and 10 years of Turkey being governed by a relatively more "religiously informed" government than was the case in Turkish Republican history, this article examines the changing role of religion in Turkey-Azerbaijan relations.

Turkish involvement in religious affairs in Azerbaijan is done primarily through two channels – one is the official Directorate of Religious Affairs in Turkey and the other is the Fethullah Gülen movement, also called the Nurcu’s because the Gülen teachings draw on Said Nursi’s writings. The Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs has financed the construction of a number of mosques (eight according to most sources) and trains clergy from Azerbaijan in Turkey, as well as setting up schools in Azerbaijan to train clergy – in collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Education and Foreign ministry.

The work of the Gülen movement is harder to qualify or quantify - and its interaction with government policies also much more complex.

Read entire report on the manipulation of Azerbaijan politics by the Gulen Movement.

 Report by the Center for Conflict Prevention and Early Warning

http://www.cpc-ew.ro/occasional_papers/008.pdf