Gulen Movement and the jailed Turkish Journalists by Wall Street Journal

Ahmed Sik, jailed Turkish journalist and author of "Imam Ordusu" (Imam's Army)

http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2011/11/16/jailed-author%e2%80%99s-banned-book-launched/tab/print/

Good short article by Turkish American Ayla Albayrak

The book was banned and the author jailed before it was published, but on Wednesday a group of fellow journalists and writers in Turkey launched Ahmet Sik’s “The Army of Imam” at an annual book fair, outraged by what they see as suppression of free speech.

Mr. Sik has been in jail since March and it wasn’t until September that the charges against him — aiding an alleged terrorist organization known as Ergenekon, that aimed to overthrow the government — were made public. His trial is expected to begin later this month. The book is being used in evidence against him.
Mr. Sik’s case and that of fellow journalist Nedim Sener, who was arrested at the same time, have become lightning rods for critics of the government’s record on freedom of expression. The European Union and the U.S. also have criticized the arrests.
The book was co-signed by 124 journalists and others, who revised and edited it for release at Istanbul’s TUYAP book fair Wednesday.
The book argues that the Turkish police force has become increasingly controlled by a religious Muslim movement led from the U.S. by Turkish Imam-businessman, Fethullah Gulen. Many Turks see the Gulen movement, which is known mainly for building and running schools in Turkey and around the world, including in the U.S., as a moderate and modernizing Islamic force.
But opponents say the movement has a hidden Islamist agenda. They say that since the Islamic-leaning Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came to power in 2002, the Gulen movement has become increasingly powerful, replacing the militarist so-called deep state that the Ergenekon case is designed to uncover, with a new Islamist one that also abuses the courts.
Mr. Sik’s book, a draft of which was widely downloaded from the internet after his arrest, is no smoking gun against the Gulen movement. But Mr. Sik’s supporters note his own long record of investigative journalism against the old deep state and believe he is being prosecuted and punished for doing his job as a journalist.
His book was renamed by his co-signatories “000KITAP – Dokunan Yanar” (000BOOK – Who Touches, Will Burn), referring to what he said on the day of his arrest. “Those who touch [Gulen’s movement] will burn,” Mr. Sik said to TV cameras and onlookers, as he was shoved in a police car in front of his house in early March, over eight months ago.
“We shall retain our patience, strengthen our perseverance, keep our determination and continue our protest until our friends, Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener are given back their freedom,” journalist Ismail Saymaz, who has also had his share of trials for his journalistic work, read in a press statement at the book fair.  “In other words, “Even if we burn, we’ll touch!”
Mr. Sener also is charged with helping Ergenekon. He had been inspecting the shortcomings in the ongoing murder trial of a Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor, Hrant Dink, who was shot dead by an ultranationalist in front of his office in Istanbul in 2007.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that around two dozen journalists are in Turkish jails and none in connection with their journalistic work. Many of the jailed journalists are Kurds, accused of spreading propaganda for the Kurdish Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union. Human rights groups in Turkey and abroad disagree with Mr. Erdogan. They say the number of jailed journalists is above 50 and that they were punished for their work.



Turkish Court indicts journalists for "assisting terrorists Organization" Their real crime is opposing Gulenists

Turkish court indicts journalists for "assisting terrorist organization." Their real crime is opposing Gulenists

http://gulenforeignmedia.weebly.com/june-12-2011-germany.html

Focus Magazine  (Germany)
"It is our right to say no."  - by Andrea Hoffman, Editor

Interview with jailed Turkish journalist Ahmet Sik, June 12, 2011.  
Click here and here for original article (in German) at Focus Magazine website (with photograph of Mr. Sik).

The star Turkish journalist Ahmet Sik authored a book about the mysterious Fethullah Gulen Movement - and was promptly arrested. In prison, he revealed to FOCUS Online the contents of the book, which is banned in Turkey.
FOCUS Online:  Mr. Sik, what is the core thesis of your book, which was banned in Turkey?
SIK:  My contention is as follows: starting from the 1970s, the Turkish police has been infiltrated by the Islamic Gulen Movement. By now, this infiltration has reached a very serious stage: all key police departments are now controlled by the Gulen religious community.
FOCUS Online:  What does the Gulen Movement stand for, and what does it want to achieve?

SIK:  For some it is a faith-based community, for others a religious movement that is going to establish an Islamic state in Turkey, for yet others a movement of volunteers. Originally it was only an offshoot of the Nurcu Community. Since the 1980s, they have been very active in the area of education in order to create the leadership circle of Turkey for the new millenium (2000s). They called the young people that emerged from this educational campaign the "Golden Generation". Their calculations paid off: today, in the Turkey of 2011, they have important positions.
FOCUS Online: What percentage of the police has been penetrated by Gulenists?
SIK:  All major departments are under their control: the intelligence service, the department for combating smuggling and organized crime - the infiltration there reaches one hundred percent. Within the units to combat terrorism, the proportion is somewhat lower.  The first bastion captured by the Movement was the personnel department, which recruits police officers.  The Movement is also very powerful in the police academies.
FOCUS Online:  Can you describe the ideology of the Gulen movement?
SIK:  The ideological breeding ground of the movement was the so-called "Turkish-Islamic Synthesis," that was to spread across all of Turkey as a result of the coup of September 12, 1980: it comprises a link between Islam with a nationalism that is crass in every respect. Nothing and nobody can convince me that a religious structure that feeds off military coups could be democratically minded.  Of course, everyone should practice their faith as they themselves think best. But if someone starts to anchor this faith in the bureaucracy, it is our right to say no.
FOCUS Online:  Does the Gulen Movement have ambitions for an Islamic state?
SIK:  I do not think that the Gulen Community or any other religious movement in Turkey will impose an Islamic state. The Gulen Community may perhaps have fostered such desires in the past. I think however that the Community in the current millennium (2000s) does not intend this, because it has by now created its own quasi-bourgeois class, which distances itself from that idea. The Gulen Movement aspires to a Turkey in which parties that are ideologically close to them - such as the AKP – have the say. Furthermore, they of course want a Turkey in which economic, political and religious opponents of their Community are weaker than they are.  And they want a Turkey that, though not governed by Sharia, is, however, more conservative than the present.
FOCUS Online:  How strong is the Gulen movement in the AKP?
SIK:  It can be assumed that there is a convergence of interests between the AKP and the Gülen Movement. In other words, supporters of the Gulen Movement mainly vote for the AKP.  In order to not lose favor with these constituents, the party grants the Movement the freedom to establish itself in the bureaucracy.
The Danger of the Gulen Movement
FOCUS Online:  Is Prime Minister Erdogan personally connected to the Gulen Movement?
SIK:  Mr. Erdogan is not a member of the Gulen movement; that is known. It is said that President Gul is closer to the community. However, this is speculation. As long as a person has not stated this themselves, we can say nothing definitive. But I can confirm the following: In the AKP every religious current has a share that is proportional to their strength.
FOCUS Online:  Is Turkey covertly ruled by the Gulen movement?
SIK:  It would be reaching too far to say so. One has to speak instead of a coalition between the AKP and the Movement: both maintain a pragmatic relationship based on mutual interests.
FOCUS Online:  Wherein lies the danger that arises from the Gulen Movement?
SIK:  A great danger exists in the confrontation of the two major armed forces of Turkey: The army and the police. The army has traditionally defended itself against attempts at Islamist infiltration. Notwithstanding that, the Gulen movement is attempting to gain a foothold there  - which so far it has not succeeded in doing to the extent desired. In the police, which are the second strongest power in Turkey, the Gulen Community is arming itself against the army: through a legislative amendment of Jan 1, 2011 the police were granted the right to carry heavy weapons. The question, "What are such intensive preparations for?" remains unanswered. And as I was covering precisely this organizational effort in my book, I was automatically a target.

FOCUS Online:  In Turkey, your book is banned.  Even having a copy of it on one’s hard drive makes one liable to prosecution. Why has there been this overreaction?
SIK:  I was not surprised by this witch hunt. The Gulen Community already forms one of the main pillars of the Turkish government and does not wish to be criticized.

FOCUS Online:  How are you treated in prison?
SIK:  The staff of the prison do not treat me badly. On the contrary, they are attentive and polite towards me. All the same, it is bad enough to be cut off from one’s freedom and  loved ones, especially since this happened without any legal basis. I am staying in a triple room. Once a week, I can receive a closed visit of 45 minutes, and once a month an open visit of 75 minutes. Once a week I can make a telephone call for ten minutes. Twice a week I have the provision of warm water. As far as books and newspapers, I experience no significant limitation: in 40 days I read 11 books.
FOCUS Online:  When do you expect to be released?
SIK:  I do not expect to be released before the election. The government hopes that by then I fall into oblivion, because the general commotion surrounding my person that would ensue on releasing me would probably cost them votes.

jailed Turkish writer Ahmed Sik, interviewed from prison