The Network - Uncovering facts behind Gulen operations #FETO

2 Gulen Movement members abducted from Azerbaijan and Ukraine

bringing the total to 82 (that we know of)  from over 71 countries, soon they will circle in on the USA operation and no American official will help them. 

https://turkeypurge.com/turkish-intelligence-agency-catches-2-more-gulen-followers-abroad-returns-them-to-turkey

Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT) has abducted two overseas followers of the Gulen movement and forced them back to Turkey in the latest of such forced returns by the organization.

“MIT caught abroad another two terrorists with outstanding arrest warrants, as part of its operations under the fight against FETO,” state-run Anadolu news agency said Thursday.

The detainees were identified as Isa Ozdemir and Salih Zeki Yigit who were forced back in a private jet, operated by MIT, from Azerbaijan and Ukraine, respectively. The pair are accused of membership to the Gulen movement which the government calls FETO.

Media reported Wednesday that a Baku court had, earlier in the day, turned down Turkey’s request for Ozdemir’s deportation and the man was released from the detention center.

Turkish president Erdoğan accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding a failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016 while the latter denies involvement.

More than 150,000 people have been detained and 90,000 were remanded in prison over Gulen links in Turkey since the summer of 2016. Meanwhile, Erdogan called on foreign governments to punish Gulenists in their own countries.

So far, a number of countries like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Georgia and Myanmar handed over academics, businessmen and school principals upon the Turkish government’s request despite the fact that some of those victims already had refugee status with the United Nations.

According to Turkish government’s narrative, MIT conducts such operations by itself in some countries and brings the suspects back without involvement of any other foreign law enforcement.

Gulen Movement members meeting in Church, brother in law of Adil Oksuz

Turkish people only accept ancient Eastern Christianity - Orthodox, Syriac, et al,
they dont recognize these people just using them for space.

By Ertugrul Cingil and Islam Dogru

NEW JERSEY

Members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) living in the U.S. state of New Jersey are using a church as their meeting place, as revealed by video footage of the group, which was also responsible for the defeated coup in Turkey nearly two years ago.

Anadolu Agency filmed the FETO members during their evening meetings at the Cliffside Park borough in New Jersey.

There is a nearby Turkish community mosque, the Diyanet Mosque of Bergen, but the FETO members instead congregate at the Trinity Episcopal Church.

Abdulhadi Yildirim, accused financier of the FETO terror group and brother-in-law of Adil Oksuz, Turkey's most wanted coup attempt suspect, are among those who attend.

Anadolu Agency has also filmed Yildirim in front of his luxury car dealership in New Jersey’s Edgewater borough talking to his employees and kissing an American flag, then handing the flag to an employee to kiss.

The church footage also shows Alp Aslandogan, executive director of the Gulen-linked Alliance for Shared Values, among the FETO members attending the church meetings.

FETO is behind the June 15, 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, which martyred 250 people and left 2,200 injured.

Full access to building

After leaving their vehicles in a private parking lot, FETO members open the doors of the church by themselves, as there is no staff on duty.

The footage also showed one FETO member giving a military-style salute to another at the church entrance.

The footage also captured FETO members turning off the lamps of the church and locking the church gate after finishing their meeting.

Ties with church

The church and the members of FETO apparently have long had strong connections.

The website of the New Jersey branch of the Turkish Cultural Center -- FETO's umbrella organization -- shows information and footage of the visits and activities with the Trinity Episcopal church.

The webpage shows various events such as a visit to the church pastor Willie J. Smith and joint events at the church with Arzu Kaya Uranli, a FETO-linked journalist with shuttered daily Today’s Zaman, and Zaman America webpage Editor Sitki Ozcan.

The Trinity Episcopal Church -- known for a liberal stance and favoring interfaith dialogue -- includes also content on its good relations with FETO on its website.

Mysterious deportations of Key Gulenists worldwide: Finland, Malaysia, Sudan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Finland, Iraq, Myanmar....more #Hizmet

Gulen members like to refer to key Gulen members as "Kidnappings" "Deportations" but the truth is, the host countries where they are living and robbing from are arresting them, and in a few cases the Gulenists are fleeing and missing. 
This blog has documented these odd disappearances, being a member of Gulen Movement is a casualty.  The smart members of Hizmet are fleeing with as much cash as they can, before they are arrested in their host country.  There is more that we don't know this is just the tip of the iceberg
Latest Article from Hizmet paper:

http://hizmetnews.com/23892/mysterious-deportations-turkish-teachers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HizmetNews+%28Hizmet+News%29#.Wn_2F6inGM8

An unexpected flurry of activity took place inside a house in Lahore’s Wapda Town on September 27, 2017. At the unearthly hour of 2:25 am, about 12 men in plain clothes barged in, got hold of the people living inside, covered their heads, bundled them into a car and sped away. Those abducted included Mesut Kacmaz, a Turkish citizen living and working in Pakistan as a director at the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges, his wife and two children.

When his fellow director Orhan Agyun got the news, he immediately contacted his friends in the neighbourhood. Soon he filed a petition at the Lahore High Court for the recovery of the Kacmaz family through AGHS Law Associates, a Lahore-based firm headed by Asma Jahangir that specialises in human rights cases. The petition stated that those taken away feared being deported to Turkey where they might face imprisonment and persecution. It also said that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) had duly registered Kacmaz and his family as asylum seekers who, after leaving Pakistan, did not want to go back to Turkey but to a destination where they could be safe. The registration had qualified them, under various earlier court orders, to stay in Pakistan till October 2017, the petition added.

On October 6, the court ordered that the family could not be deported. Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza, who heard the petition, told the federal interior ministry to put their names on the Exit Control List and find out who had abducted them. On October 14, Kacmaz’s colleagues informed AGHS Law Associates that he and his family had already reached Turkey. He is lodged in a jail there along with his wife, says Usama Malik, a lawyer representing him and his family. Their children are staying with their grandparents, he says.

Justice Mirza was furious when he was informed about it. On October 17, he sought an explanation from the interior ministry as to how Kacmaz and his family had been made to leave Pakistan in spite of his orders against their deportation. The ministry told the judge that it had no record of their departure from airports in Lahore and Islamabad.

Asim Khan Qaimkhani, additional director of immigration at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, also verifies that no Turkish family was forcibly deported from Karachi either. Otherwise, he says, his department would have been notified. “If they left, they left willingly.”

The mystery of the family’s departure deepened as reports started circulating that Turkish police came to Pakistan and took them back on a chartered plane. When the court came to know about these reports, it ordered the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority to find out when and from where the chartered plane had flown them out of Pakistan. The authority later said it had no knowledge or record of the arrival and departure of such a plane.

Four middle-aged Turkish men sit in a newspaper office in Lahore in the middle of December 2017. They are visibly tired and worried — and reluctant to divulge their names. Two of them have received 10-year visas for the United States and have plans to leave Pakistan soon. The other two – and 12 more people like them – cannot even apply for a foreign visa since their passports have expired and there is no way that they can get them renewed by Turkish authorities.

They will have to find a way to stay in Pakistan until their applications for asylum to countries in Europe or North America are accepted. They are willing to try any options to get out of Pakistan — whether it is through the United Nations or through human smugglers. “That is how distressed we are,” says one of them. They are also bitter about how they are being treated. “The [previous] president of Turkey – Abdullah GÜL – visited our schools. Now we are considered terrorists,” says another.

He finds it worrisome that no voices have been raised by political parties in Pakistan over their mistreatment, even when they see Pakistan as their second home. One elaborates, “One of my kids was born in Quetta and the other in Lahore. They are Pakistani you can say. My kids ask me, ‘Why are Pakistanis … forcing us to leave our home?’” All four let out nervous laughter when asked if they expect any change in the attitude of the Pakistani government towards them. “The Turkish government has given so much to Pakistan. I don’t think politicians, even the opposition, would risk that. Why would they care about a few teachers?”

Trouble for the PakTurk schools and colleges and their Turkish teachers and managerial staff started after an alleged coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed in July 2016. The coup was said to be backed and orchestrated by Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish preacher living in the United States where he heads a foundation called Hizmet (service). It owns and operates media organisations, educational institutions and non-profit associations both in Turkey and among Turkish migrants in other countries. Turkish authorities in Ankara allege that the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges are also a part of Gülen’s network. They, therefore, wanted Pakistani authorities to close down these educational institutions and deport their Turkish staff.

Around 110 Turkish teachers, residing in Pakistan with their families, consequently received no positive response from Pakistani authorities on their annual visa renewal applications, says Agyun. For the previous 21 years – since 1995 when PakTurk International schools and colleges started operating in Pakistan – they have been getting their visas renewed without much hassle.

The situation became even worse when Erdogan arrived in Islamabad on an official visit on November 16, 2016. The same day, the interior ministry told all Turks working with the PakTurk educational network to leave Pakistan within three days.

To preempt any disruption in academic activities, Agyun and his senior colleagues in the management took some immediate measures. They started replacing Turkish teachers with Pakistani ones and posted an announcement on the website of their organisation: “We feel it imperative to clarify that the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges in Pakistan are a philanthropic and non-political endeavor in the country organised and established for human development, inter alia, in the field of education for the benefit of all Pakistanis … We are deeply concerned by allegations made by a certain section in the social media trying to connect the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges in Pakistan with Mr. Fethullah Gülen or the political movement ascribed to him in wake of the recent unfortunate and reprehensible events in Turkey. We do unequivocally clarify that the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges in Pakistan have no affiliation or connection with any political individual or any movement or organisation, whether political, religious or denominational, nor do we have a financial relationship with any movement.”

Their third step was to move courts to prevent deportations. While the Islamabad High Court dismissed their petition and instead told them to approach the interior ministry for an extension of their visas, the Peshawar High Court halted the deportations through an order on November 23, 2016. Another positive development for them was a verdict by the Islamabad High Court in March 2017 that declared that the state had made no decision to take over educational institutions owned and operated by their organisation.

Turks working with the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges, in the meanwhile, were flocking to the offices of the UNHCR in Islamabad. Though Pakistan is not a signatory to the international conventions on refugees and asylum seekers, according to lawyer Malik, it is obliged under international law to refrain from deporting any foreigners living here if they have already registered as asylum seekers with the United Nations.

This certainly did not help Kacmaz and his family.

The main campus for boys run by the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges in Lahore is situated on Lahore’s Raiwind Road. Built over a decade ago, it has a state-of-the-art building with an indoor Futsal court and an auditorium that can accommodate 500 students. In 2006, General Pervez Musharraf conferred a civilian award on the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges, recognising their services to Pakistan.

One early morning in December 2017, the school’s principal, Asif Raja, is running through meetings while tending to a cell phone that is constantly ringing. He is overseeing preparations for a math competition involving over 11,000 students from across Pakistan. “What these [Turkish] teachers brought [here] was quality education and international exposure. They had taught in various countries and were role models for students,” he says. “[Their deportation order] was really shocking for us,” he adds. “We never saw anything controversial or suspicious [about them].”

Local teachers and managers are running the campus now, as they do at all 28 campuses of the PakTurk educational network located in Islamabad, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Khairpur, Multan, Jamshoro, Hyderabad and Rawalpindi. About 12,000 students are enrolled at these institutions.

At one of them, in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar area, Haseebullah Jogi is conversing in Turkish over the phone in the principal’s office on a mid-December day. A Turkish flag stands to his right and a Pakistani one to his left, along with framed photos, hanging side by side, of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The school’s official motto – “We believe that what is taught with love lasts forever” – is visible everywhere: on promotional brochures, newsletters and other merchandise.

Jogi took over as principal not too long ago. As part of the plan to replace the Turkish staff with locals, he was transferred here in August 2016 from the Khairpur campus where he was working as vice principal. He himself is a 2009 graduate of the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges and has studied physics at Istanbul University on a scholarship. “Nowhere in our school system are we teaching about Fethullah Gülen. He has no connection [to] our schools,” says Jogi.

By early October 2017, most Turkish teachers had left Pakistan. Those who could not were worried, according to Jogi, “because going back [to Turkey] meant they would be imprisoned”. And once in Turkey, they would also find it impossible to apply for asylum elsewhere, explains a human rights lawyer.

In order to avoid being deported, they had moved the Sindh High Court which, on October 3, extended its earlier injunction against their deportation to October 10. It was later extended again to December 5.

Only a couple of families now live in Karachi – and a few more in other cities – but they are also planning to leave. They have little choice, according to Jogi. “They have lost their livelihood in Pakistan … because their visas have expired.”

What country will be next? Which Gulenist will flee and end up MIA?  

Erodgan issues warning to African countries "take your children out of G...

Gulen Schools Worldwide List from Gulen Cemaat

A GREAT INTEREST IN SCHOOL OF HIZMET MOVEMENT IN ROMANIA

Fethullah Gulen explained

Russia to close the last of Gulen Movement #GladioOperation activities

Gulen Gladio CIA Terrorist Organization behind the shooting of Russian Ambassador https://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2017/07/05/russia-investigates-2-feto-linked-institutions

An operation against the Gülenist Terror Group's (FETÖ) St.Petersburg establishments, "Oxford Vision" and the "Russian-Turkish Cultural Center," has been launched by the Russian authorities, Anadolu Agency reported yesterday.

During the inspections, which have been conducted since May by the Russian Ministry of Finance into emergency situations and employment and migration at the FETÖ-linked Oxford Vision language school and the Russian-Turkish Culture Center, the authorities identified a large number of violations of the law, the report said.

According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti's news, following the identifications, both institutions received hefty fines. The suspects, one of whom is the founder of the Russian-Turkish Culture Center, Adnan Öztürk, while the other is an instructor at Oxford Vision, Eşref Sarışahin, were detained due to claims that they offered bribes to the authorities that conducted the inspection.

Since 2013, both FETÖ-linked institutions have established their activities in several locations in Russia. Yet, according to the information that AA received from the authorities, both institutions have been dormant for one-and-a-half years, while inspections against the institutions have increased due to denunciations, and numerous irregularities in their activities have been discovered by the Russian authorities.

Authorities further stated that the FETÖ-linked institutions will be shut down with a court order or the institutions will close themselves down.

Turkey has asked countries to close FETÖ-linked schools, colleges and businesses following the attempted coup that left 249 people dead on July 15. The group, led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gülen, has a large network of overseas educational and commercial interests.

Episode 1 - Gulen: Paradox Between ''Peace Champion'' & ''Coup Leader''

3 FETO teachers arrested and deported back to Turkey by Malaysia police a threat to national security

The three FETÖ suspects were arrested for threatening national security.

Malaysian Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Zahid Hamidi announced that two Turkish citizens who were detained last week and had links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), were extradited to Turkey.

İsmet Özçelik, İhsan Aslan and Turgay Karaman were arrested by Malaysian security forces.

Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar said that the three suspects were extradited to Turkey for their links to FETÖ.

He added that their passports had been cancelled by Turkey, and therefore, Özçelik, Aslan and Karaman had the status of illegal immigrants in Malaysia.

Özçelik, the head of a FETÖ school in Malaysia, used to work as the vice chair of a university in Turkey before he was fired for links to the FETÖ terrorist organization.

The three were arrested last week for threatening national security.

FETÖ terrorists are led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gülen, who orchestrated Turkey's July 15 coup attempt and is the mastermind behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

Since the failed coup, operations have been ongoing in the military, police and judiciary as well as in state institutions across the country to arrest suspects with alleged links to FETÖ.

The terrorist group is also known for its network comprised of hundreds of schools around the world.

https://stockholmcf.org/turkeys-official-agency-refutes-claims-of-malaysian-deputy-pm-and-police-chief-over-three-turks/

Afghanistan Gulen Schools next to close #HeroinTrade

KABUL - Afghanistan has ordered a network of schools run by an organisation regarded with suspicion by the Turkish government to be transferred to a foundation approved by Ankara, Afghan officials said.

The move against Afghan Turk CAG Educational NGO (ATCE), the body that runs the schools, appears to be part of Turkey's campaign against followers of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric it accuses of being behind a coup attempt in July. ATCE, which says it is an independent organization, runs schools in several cities including the capital, Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar and Herat and has been in Afghanistan since 1995.

Acting Education Minister Shafiq Samim said the Turkish government had asked for the schools to be placed under the management of a so-called "Vakif", a Turkish educational and charitable foundation.

He said there would be a "gradual transition" of staff but the government would not expel any of the schools' Turkish teachers.

"Turkish teachers are our guests and there has not been any decision to expel them," he told a news conference on Saturday, adding that the schools would continue to operate. ATCE Chairman Numan Erdogan said his organization had not yet received any government notification, and would challenge any decision to take away management of the schools.

"We have nothing to do with developments in Turkey, none of our teachers is implicated and any allegations against us about that are baseless," he said.

Last year, shortly before a visit to Islamabad by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Pakistan ordered Turkish teachers at schools run by a body called PakTurk International Schools and Colleges to leave the country.

Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan who nows lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, promotes a moderate form of Islam, supporting inter-faith communication and Western-style education and inspiring schools in different parts of the world. In the wake of July's attempted coup, the Turkish president branded him a "terrorist" and pressed other countries to move against him and his supporters.

Turkey has donated around $1 billion in development aid to Afghanistan since 2004, according to the ministry of foreign affairs and is one of the country's most important economic partners, with ethnic and cultural links in the north.

It also provides more than 500 troops to the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.

http://nation.com.pk/international/07-Mar-2017/afghanistan-moves-against-turkish-schools-linked-to-erdogan-foe

Gulen's worldwide leaders ....they worship Gulen, control and money

Gulen's inner circle

Is that Bekiry Aksoy's home? He is second to Gulen FETÖ SİLAHLI TERÖR ÖRGÜTÜ ABD YAPILANMASI 1. Feto 2. Bekir Aksoy 3. Cevdet Türkyolu 4. Osman Şimşek 5. Sezai Sablak 6. Kemal Çetin Özgür

İMMETZADELER @HimmetZadeler Aug 25 View translation @HimmetZadeler 7. Salih Dinçer 8. Erkan Acar 9. Burhan Gülen 10. Sait Önal 11. Kadir Bulut 12. Hüseyin Çopur 13. İzzet Akyar 1 reply 6 retweets 7 likes

Gulen Turkish Schools in India, Turkey's Government asked to be shuttered

ew Delhi, November 4



Turkey has asked India to shut down schools linked to Fethullah Gullen — the second time the country has made such a request in its attempt to bring down the cleric it accuses of masterminding July’s failed coup.



Turkey’s Development Minister Lutfi Elvan — currently on a state visit to India — said after his meeting with Home Minister Rajnath: "Unfortunately, in India too this terrorist organisation has organised themselves. They (the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation) have got four schools, one international school and a college and they are organised in Delhi, South Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata. During our meeting we also had the opportunity to discuss this with Minister (Singh) about the preventive measures to be taken against this terorist organisation," Lutfi said.



Turkey's crackdown since rogue soldiers tried to seize power on July 15 has alarmed Western allies and rights groups, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is using the coup attempt to crush dissent. More than 100,000 people have been sacked or suspended and 37,000 arrested over the past three-and-a-half months.



Ankara wants the United States to detain and extradite Gulen so that he can be prosecuted for having engineered the coup to overthrow the government. Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, denies any part in it.  — Agencies



http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/turkey-wants-india-to-crack-down-on-gulen-schools/318725.html



http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/the-turkish-connection/article5368278.ece



http://indianexpress.com/article/world/world-news/feto-infiltrates-india-turkey-all-you-need-to-know-about-fethullah-gulen-terrorist-organisation/

Kazakhstan Schools Gulen "Inspired" change names

Turkish-Kazakh schools across Kazakhstan are being renamed amid a campaign by Turkey against the exiled Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.

The Turkish-Kazakh schools were co-founded by Gulen's Hizmet movement and his followers and have been functioning in Kazakhstan since early 1990s.

One of the other sponsors of the 33 Turkish-Kazakh schools in Kazakhstan, the KATEV Foundation, said on October 18 that the schools are to be renamed as "Bilim" (Education) Innovative Lyceums.

KATEV said the schools were being renamed to honor the 25th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence from the former Soviet Union, which will be celebrated on December 16.

Gulen, who is living in self-imposed exile in the United States, is accused by Ankara of ordering a July 15 attempted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by a group of the cleric's followers within Turkey's military.

Gulen has repeatedly denied the accusation.

Washington has so-far refused calls by Erdogan to extradite Gulen from the United States, saying Turkey must provide solid evidence that he played a role in the coup in support of a formal extradition request.

http://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-gulen-turkish-schools-renamed/28061316.html

Gulen Schools in the Balkans ....heart of Orthodox Christians

Gulen Movement in the Balkans from Gulen Cemaat

Gulen School in Aksaray District, Turkey ordered bulldozed by Mayor

http://m2.shaber3.com/akpli-baskan-23-nisanda-okula-dozerle-girdi-haberi-1255485.html

Gulen Schools in Germany racism, prejudice and gender abuse

Gülen Movement under Fire in Germany

Fethullah Gülen is a Turkish-born preacher who lives in the US and is an activist for Islam. His movement runs various schools and other educational facilities in Germany and elsewhere. Critics claim the network has a conservative if not Islamist agenda. Anti-Gülen sentiment is getting louder.

http://www.dw.com/en/g%C3%BClen-movement-under-fire-in-germany/av-17464038

Gulen Schools in Tajikistan are the latest to close

Gulen Schools in Tajikistan to Close

Tajikistan has become the latest Central Asian country to close schools linked to the Gülen movement, a global religious and social movement founded in 1992 by the controversial U.S.-based Turkish Imam Fethullah Gülen. The charter schools, which have operated with the support of the Tajikistan-based Salale Education Institution, have faced considerable resistance over the last two years, and have been under investigation since January 2015. The decision to close the schools was announced by President Emomali Rahmon in May. It is a decision that signals further religious oppression and reflects the emerging partnership between Tajikistan and Turkey.

The Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet Service, opened its first school in 1982. Today, it is believed to operate more than 1,000 schools worldwide. That number is set to decrease because of school closures in Turkey and other countries. Fethullah Gülen was influenced by the teachings of Kurdish theologian Said Nursi and focuses on compatibility and cohesiveness between modernity, education, and Islam in Turkey and abroad. The movement is a form of cultural Islam. Gülen emphasizes math and science, and promotes entrepreneurism and capitalism. The schools are funded by Turkish businessmen and foundations (vakif).

Long on friendly terms with Turkish authorities, the Gülen movement found itself in the crosshairs of then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (who became Turkey’s president in 2014) following a December 2013 corruption investigation into members of Erdoğan’s government, which prompted widespread protests. The prime minister believed the investigation was being driven by the Gülen movement, whose members have held prominent positions in Turkey’s law enforcement bodies, the judiciary and the government. Erdoğan accused the movement of creating a “parallel state” within the Turkish government. The outcome was a silent war between Erdoğan, his AK Party, and Gülen.

Educational Alternative

In Tajikstan, Gülen schools, called dershanes, provided an educational alternative to the country’s poor and underfunded public schools. First opened in Tajikistan in 1992, the schools served as institutions to prepare students for competitive university entrance exams. Following Rahmon’s announcement, the seven schools will close in September and transferred to the government. They will be rebranded as schools for gifted children. The agreement between Tajikistan and the Salale Education Institution, which operates the schools (and denies an affiliation with Gülen), was to expire in 2015­­­­­­­­. The presidential decree “[overruled] a cabinet decision from 1994 allowing the schools to operate.”­­­­­

The schools in Tajikistan, founded by Gülen ally Kemal Emirez, always operated under Tajik legislation, not Turkish legislation, to avoid fears of indoctrination. The schools have been successful, but are viewed by Tajik authorities as a mechanism to indoctrinate students with the Turkish language and pan-Turkism ideals, while promoting radical ideals. The wider Gülen movement in Tajikistan does not exist, as it is not a typical political or opposition force. The movement is characterized by the ideas represented by the schools and the loyalty of Gülen’s followers.

Closure of the schools could be a response to the increase in Turkish influence in Tajik politics and signal a greater alignment with Ankara’s policies. There is extensive evidence to support this. For instance, in July 2015 Turkey arrested Tajik nationals attempting to cross into Syria through Turkey to join jihadists in Iraq and in Syria. Islamist extremism is a concern for Tajikistan, which fears instability after its five-year civil war. The rising number of Salafi Muslims in Tajikistan poses a security concern for the state, along with the return of Islamic State fighters from Central Asia. In December 2014, Turkey also detained Tajik opposition figure Umarali Quvvatov (who led the anti-Rahmon organization Gruppa 24) for a visa violation; he was released in February 2015. Quvvatov was fatally shot in Istanbul’s Fatih District on March 5, 2015. The detaining of Quvvatov by Turkey prior to his death was viewed as politically motivated, and a possible exchange for shutting down the Gülen schools.

Economically, Turkey has remained one of Tajikistan’s (and Central Asia’s) primary trading partners. Tajikistan has been encouraging Turkey to take advantage of its mining resources. The two countries share membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation.

The closure of the schools further restricts religious freedom in Tajikistan, as the schools are inspired by an imam and allegedly teach Islam as part of the curriculum. The government of Tajikistan realizes it cannot eliminate religion, but it wants to control it. Authorities have already closed unregistered mosques and madrassahs, banned children from attending mosques, harassed bearded men, and is now banning names that sound “too Arabic.” The repression is driven by fear of extreme Islam, although the crackdown itself could drive social unrest.

Another explanation for the closure of the schools is the fear that Gülen supporters (or any opposition group in Tajikistan) will attempt to create a parallel state and subvert the government. Paranoia, suspicion, and an obsession with regime security remain pervasive in Central Asia. Tajikistan is no exception – the preservation of power is a top priority for Rahmon. Any opposing force is a concern and the actions of the opposition are often exaggerated. Tajikistan’s budding partnership with Turkey is also a priority and to benefit, Dushanbe has to make concessions even if it comes at the expense of its people, development of civic society and education, and prospects for its next generation.

Regional Trend

In fact, Tajikistan’s decision to close the schools reflects a wider trend in the region. The Daily Sabah reported in mid-May 2015 that Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kazakhstan, Somalia, and Japan have all begun procedures to close Gülen-linked schools. In July 2014, Azerbaijan closed Gülen schools on fears of a parallel government. Erdoğan provided Azerbaijan’s government provided a list of Gülen members. In March 2014, SOCAR, the state-run energy company, “[took] over 11 Turkish-language high schools, 13 university-exam preparation centers and the private, Baku-based Caucasus University, all run by a Turkish educational company called Çağ Öğrətim (Era Education).” The political in Azerbaijan is febrile, with the government facing numerous protests. A predominantly Muslim country with cultural, ethnic, and historical links to Turkey, Azerbaijan backs Erdoğan’s efforts. Indeed, it is one of Turkey’s strongest allies in the region.

Uzbekistan shut down its Gülen schools in 1999, after relations with Ankara soured. (This was well before the falling out between the Gülen movement and the Turkish government.) The Uzbek government feared Islamic fundamentalism and worried that graduates would attempt to weaken the Uzbek state. At the height of the Gülen movement in Uzbekistan, more than 65 schools were in operation. In Turkmenistan, the majority of the Turkish-Turkmen schools, which are supported by the Turkish Islamic movement, Nurchilar, closed in 2011. The Gülen schools are viewed as suspicious because of Turkish dominance and it was observed that “the independent states of Central Asia have struggled to create their own identities, often finding themselves embroiled in patterns of identities and ideologies transcending national borders.” In Tajikistan, too, an unstable national identity could spawn conflict, which would explain why Tajikistan, a non-Turkic republic, would be wary of a Turkish presence in schools.

The schools, once seen as an instrument of soft power after the collapse of the Soviet Union, are now being closed to advance Erdoğan’s influence and Ankara’s policies in Central Asia. Erdoğan is exploiting the fear of instability, religious extremism, and violence to achieve his policy objectives. The existence of Gülen schools threaten the Turkish president’s power and ability to sustain influence. A prominent alternative to Erdogan’s policies would inhibit his ability to pursue his policies. Erdoğan considers the Gülen Movement – seen as extreme, secretive, and proselytizing – radical and a threat to Turkey’s reputation and global image. As the Turkish president tries to shore up his own increasingly fragile domestic political position and build influence in Tajikistan and Central Asia, that is a threat that he cannot tolerate.

Samantha Brletich is a contributor and Advisory Board Member at Modern Diplomacy. Her writing and research focuses on Russia and Central Asia, particularly economics, defense, regional relations, extremism and terrorism and social issues. Ms. Brletich possesses a Master’s Degree in Peace Operations Policy from George Mason University and is an employee of the U.S. Department of Defense. Opinions here are her own.

Gulen Schools Worldwide part of Operation Gladio under CIA and mastermind of Graham Fuller

 

 

As I read you started to research about Gulen Cemaat when you came to Turkey for a conference. What was the thing that attracted your interest about Gulen and his members?

1. WE: I am a geopolitical researcher and author now for more than thirty years. My prime theme is geopolitics or how power is organized in our world by whom, to what aim. When I was invited to Turkey on a speaking tour for one of my books, a Turkish journalist who since has become a trusted friend suggested if I wanted to understand what was going on in Turkey, a country I have long considered to have a far more positive role than she has played within NATO, I should look deeply into the Gülen Cemaat. That began a long process as I began to realize the deeper agenda behind the façade of Rumi that Gülen and his people project.
2. Our first knowledge about Gülen is, his struggle against communism via a foundation (which was a NATO agenda indeed). So could we say that Gülen and his CIA relationship started long ago?
3. WE: Yes, all evidence suggests that NATO Turkish Gladio networks picked up Gülen as a potentially useful asset years ago. As their agenda changed with the collapse of the Soviet Union, their role for Gülen changed as well and doors were opened for him to play that role.

So in a true sense we can say that the Gülen Cemaat is the nothing more than the projection of an idea from Langley Virginia CIA headquarters, an idea from essentially stupid people there who believed they could use him and they could abuse religion as a cover to advance their design for global control, what David Rockefeller calls One World Government.
Unlike the CIA’s Mujahideen Jihadists like Hekmatyar in Afghanistan or Naser Oric in Bosnia, the CIA decided to give Fethullah Gülen a radically different image. No blood-curdling, head-severing, human-heart-eating Jihadist. No, Fethullah Gülen was presented to the world as a man of “peace, love and brotherhood,” even managing to grab a photo Op with Pope John Paul II, which Gülen featured prominently on his website. The Gülen organization in the US hired one of Washington’s highest-paid Public Relations image experts, George W. Bush’s former campaign director, Karen Hughes, to massage his “moderate” Islam image. 
The ideas and manipulations of the CIA and US State Department are collapsing everywhere today, but they are blinded by their own arrogance. Just look at their absurd mess they created with the neo-nazis in Ukraine. 

1. As it's a very conflicted subject, how do you certainly believe that Gülen and CIA work together?
2. WE: This is not merely my view but that of very knowledgeable Turkish analysts and even the former Turkish MIT senior figure, Osman Nuri Gundes, former FBI Turkish-American translator Sibel Edmonds, and others have documented his deep links to very senior CIA people such as Graham Fuller.  When Gülen fled Turkey to avoid prosecution for treason in 1998, he chose not to go to any of perhaps a dozen Islamic countries which could have offered him asylum. He chose instead the United States. He did so with the help of the CIA. The US State Department tried to block a special “preference visa as an alien of extraordinary ability in the field of education” permanent visa status for Gülen, arguing he was basically a fraud with a fifth grade education and no special Islam scholar. Over the objections of the FBI, of the US State Department and of the US Department of Homeland Security, three former CIA operatives intervened and managed to secure a Green Card and permanent US residency for Gülen.

Intervention by three current or “former” CIA people--George Fidas, who was US Ambassador to Turkey and an ex CIA Deputy Director; Morton Abramowitz who was described as at least “informal” CIA, and CIA career man who spent time in Turkey, Graham E. Fuller. They got Gülen asylum in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. That certainly suggests a strong tie at the very least.   

1. Was the relationship between Gulen and the CIA depending on both parties’ benefits? If so what were their benefits? How did CIA support Gulen to develop and grow his foundation?
2. WE: Yes, clearly. For the Gülen Cemaat it enabled a vast business empire to be created which gained more and more influence by placing its people inside the police, the courts and education ministry. He could build his recruiting schools across Central Asia with CIA support. In the USA and Europe, CIA-influenced media like CNN gave him beautiful free publicity to overcome opposition to open his schools across America. For the CIA it was one more tool to destroy not only an independent secular Kemalist Turkey, but to advance their Afghan drug trade worldwide and to use Gülen’s people to destabilize opponent regimes that CIA network in Washington, the “deep state” wanted to get rid of.

Sibel Edmonds, former FBI Turkish translator and “whistleblower,” named Abramowitz, along with Graham E. Fuller, as part of a dark cabal within the US Government that she discovered were using networks out of Turkey to advance a criminal “deep state” agenda across the Turkic world, from Istanbul into China. The network that she documented included significant involvement in heroin trafficking out of Afghanistan.
On retiring from the State Department, Abramowitz served on the board of the US Congress-financed National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and was a co-founder with George Soros of the International Crisis Group. Both the NED and International Crisis Group were implicated in various US Government-backed “color revolutions” since the 1990’s collapse of the Soviet Union, from Otpor in Serbia to the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the 2013-14 coup in Ukraine, to the 2009 Green Revolution in Iran, to the 2011 Lotus Revolution in Tahrir Square in Egypt. 
Graham E. Fuller had been immersed in the CIA’s activities in steering Mujahideen and other political Islamic organizations since the 1980’s. He spent 20 years as CIA operations officer in Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Afghanistan, and was one of the CIA’s early advocates of using the Muslim Brotherhood and similar Islamist organizations like Gülen Cemaat to advance US foreign policy.

1. How does CIA work via Gulen schools at Middle-Asia?
2. WE: First it should be noted that Russia moved swiftly to ban the Gülen schools when the CIA began the Chechyn terror in the 1990’s. In the 1980’s when the Iran-Contra scandal broke in Washington (a scheme authored by Fuller at CIA), he “retired” to work at the CIA and Pentagon-financed RAND think-tank. There, under RAND cover, Fuller was instrumental in developing the CIA strategy for building the Gülen Movement as a geopolitical force to penetrate former Soviet Central Asia. Among his RAND papers, Fuller wrote studies on Islamic fundamentalism in Turkey, in Sudan, in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Algeria. His books praise Gülen lavishly.

After the fall of the USSR, Fetullah Gülen’s cadre were sent to establish Gülen schools and Madrasses across newly-independent former Soviet states in Central Asia. It was a golden chance for the CIA, using the cover of Gülen religious schools, to send hundreds of CIA agents deep inside Central Asia the first time. In 1999 Fuller argued, “The policy of guiding the evolution of Islam and of helping them against our adversaries worked marvelously well in Afghanistan against the Russians. The same doctrines can still be used to destabilize what remains of Russian power, and especially to counter the Chinese influence in Central Asia.”
Gülen was named by one former FBI authoritative source as, “one of the main CIA operation figures in Central Asia and the Caucasus.” During the 1990’s the Gülen schools then growing up across Eurasia were providing a base for hundreds of CIA agents under cover of being “native-speaking English teachers.” Osman Nuri Gundes revealed that the Gülen movement “sheltered 130 CIA agents” at its schools in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan alone in the 1990s.

1. Gulen migrated from Turkey to USA at 1999, 3 days after terrorist Kurdish movement leader Abdullah Ocalan was kidnapped and brought to Turkey. What did it mean? Could Gulen co-operate better with CIA when he moved USA?
2. WE: I think the CIA feared Gülen would end in prison and could be far more useful in US sanctuary where they could feed his image better and pump up his aura. Now clearly Gülen fears to return to Turkey even though he legally could. That says a lot.
3. What does Gulen Foundation do for the benefits of CIA inside Turkey and Middle-East?
4. WE: That would require a much longer discussion. What I find interesting is how a deep and now bitter split has emerged between Gülen Cemaat in Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. I believe Erdogan began to pursue his own agenda and that came in collision with that of the CIA and State Department for Turkey in the larger world.
5. Turkish goverment AKP currently running a huge police operation against Gulen members among justice and police organisation, on the other hand, public sceptic about these operations as AKP and Gulen were also allies before november 17th corruption scandal occured. So could we say that AKP, Tayyip Erdogan and CIA were also allies once?
6. WE: Turkey is a NATO member so no Turkish government is permitted for long if it tries to be independent of NATO, i.e. Washington, for long, as you know. When Erdogan began going his own way, the US networks began to demonize him in media worldwide, and Gülen media attacked him fiercely. I believe the split between Erdogan and Gülen went long before Nov. 17 scandals. Who was behind the leaking of those accusations? What was US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone doing in that regard? Interesting questions for someone.
7. You say that CIA is at Gulen's side in their fight against AKP. What could CIA do to stop Erdogan and AKP?
8. WE: My opinion is that was what the scandals were for, to try to prevent Erdogan’s election as President but they failed. Keep in mind the “scandal”  was about how Erdogan allegedly violated US oil sanctions against Iran, so the scandals were intended to break that trade, a Washington goal. 
9. Anything to add...
10. WE: I believe that Turkey today can play a very positive role in a new world that is emerging to replace the world of CIA wars, terror and chaos. Turkey is a geopolitical crossroads which has the possibility to play a very positive role in the emerging Eurasian system of China and Russia, the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in building energy and rail infrastructure. By herself, Turkey will be isolated and broken as Ukraine, and by the same people. In a principled economic and political alliance with Russia and China, she can play a pivot role in building a new world free of the debt of the collapsing Dollar System that also included the stagnating Europe. Turkey has a beautiful opportunity to partner with Russia and change the world power balance. It will require a lot of will. But if done in a good open way, Turkey could enjoy prosperity as never before and be a genuine “good neighbor.”

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*For the original article (PDF) published by Cumhuriyet click here
William Engdahl, BFP contributing Author & Analyst
William Engdahl is author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics in the New World Order. He is a contributing author at BFP and may be contacted through his website at www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net where this article was originally published.

 

Gulen and The NEW WORLD ORDER: The Gülen Movement: A New Islamic World Order? - C...

Gulen and The NEW WORLD ORDER: The Gülen Movement: A New Islamic World Order? - C...