The geopolitics of the Black Sea peninsula has one more time become the center of major events. International politics is not about charity; it is all about national interests, and President Putin does have a national interest in the Ukraine. Thus Putin will do anything to protect that interest. Putin does not want NATO and the US military bases at his back door and will at all cost try to keep NATO and the US out of his border. Continue reading
The United Nations Is Just a Debating Society: It Needs Urgent Reform Mediator Lakhdar Brahimi has apologized to the Syrian people after peace talks in Geneva ended without any progress. Our world has dramatically been changing economically, geopolitically and socially and has shifted the of balance of power from the West to the East. Continue reading
The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi started with a great display of fireworks and Russian former Olympians lighting the cauldron. The games are one of the world’s most watched sporting events, and those wanting to have the world’s attention, for good or bad purposes, have a great venue to spread their news. Continue reading
The Geneva II Peace Conference on Syria, which seeks to end the war on Syria, seems designed to fail at the beginning of the negotiations. For any peace to be successful, all actors need to make hard compromises if they want to end the war. If they fail to compromise, the war will continue and likely cause more chaos and destruction in the region and more Syrian deaths. Continue reading
In the past Turkey’s military junta would stage a coup and overthrow the democratically elected government, but now an imam is trying to overthrow the Prime Minister, who was elected by popular vote, along with his administration. The imam is using the military junta method in a coup d’ état by forcing a crisis of confidence. Continue reading
Gülen and his followers are accusing Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan of not being transparent and accountable, but also of being authoritarian and dictatorial. The question is how transparent is Gülen and his organization? Recently, the Machiavelli in Pennsylvania revealed his authentic character by cursing the Prime Minister and causing hate toward the democratically elected leader. Why can’t the West and American academics see that Gülen is not committed to dialogue, peace, social justice, and social harmony? Until now Gülen has managed a two-faced campaign of outward moderation, while concealing his goal of political power, with great success. However, recently in his power struggle with Prime Minister Erdogan, Gülen has revealed his true goal and showed Turkey the real Gülen. Erdogan is standing tall in the public eye and gathering momentum; Gülen is lying low in the public eye and losing his credibility among the Muslims in Turkey.
The more Gülen is involved in politics, the more it will be the end of his mission organization. We all ready see some of parents withdraw their kids from schools and Zaman newspaper already losing its readership. The current fight between Prime Minister Erdogan and Gülen is not about democracy, justice, or equality; rather it is a struggle for control of the Turkish state itself. Erdogan says, “I want to be totally in charge” while Gülen says, “No, I want absolute power.” The difference between the two is that Gulen presents himself as a more liberal player, a friend of the Jews, and an ally of the US. Erdogan, on the other hand, is accountable to the electorate. Gulen presents himself as a champion of interfaith dialogue, but in his early teachings he issued abrasive exhortations to Muslims to become bombs and explode and to tear to pieces the heads of infidels. The secrecy and obfuscation practiced by the Gulen mission organization in Turkey now is being used in the U.S. and around the world.
How democratic is Gülen himself? People in Turkey cannot speak negatively about only two individuals because doing so results in punishment. The first is the founder of Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and the second one is the founder of the Gülen Movement mission organization, Fethullah Gulen. In Turkey, if the someone curses, objects to, or speaks against Allah or the prophet Mohammed, it is not a crime and nothing will happen, but now doing any of those same things about Gülen will have grave consequences.
Gülen contradicts himself in what he says and what he practices. In his article financial times on September 27, 2012, he proclaimed, “A Muslim must always be straightforward and consistent in his actions and words.” But in reality he and his followers are not being consistent with either. For a long time Gülen and his followers argued that they are not political, but everyday he gives fatwa’s from Pennsylvania and currently is launching a slander campaign against Turkey’s democratically elected Prime Minister. Thus, anyone following the elections to any degree will note that Gulen is showing his political ambitions, and he is trying to manipulate the upcoming election to take total control of Turkey.
The question is that if Gülen is so very transparent, should he reveal the truth behind his mask? Is he a Muslim representative? Is his organization religious or political? Does Gulen have political ambitions? Why can’t he be publically involved in politics instead of hiding himself in the U.S. and continuing to confuse the public? Should Gülen tell the world who he and his devotees are and what their true colors are? Should Gülen explain to countries around the globe if they are only a religious organization and what they are really about? Are they a humanitarian organization? Gulen is not a democratically elected public leader, but Erdogan is; therefore, Erdogan has a right not to listen to him but instead to his constituencies. Gülen called him “Prime Minister Authoritarian” and compared him to Pharaoh. I wonder how many of Gülen’s followers could object to his view? I wonder how many people could criticize him without being insulted, sued, or even jailed. In reality Gülen is one of the most authoritarian leaders today. Gulen and his movement claim to be believers in democracy, but in reality Gülen himself has supported undemocratic practices in Turkey, for example by praising the military for deposing democratically elected former Prime Minster Erbakan, as mentioned above. Further, Gülen failed to condemn the violence against the Kurdish people. Instead Gülen condemned Kurdish people who struggled for their basics rights. There is evidence that his organization has played a role in the unjust and undemocratic arrest of KCK members and the trials of some of his movement’s critics. The organization is entangled in an astonishing range of wrongs that run from slander to the framing of perceived opponents.
Let’s assume that some of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) members have received bribes, have been involved in corruption, and should pay the price for committing these crimes. Corruption should not be tolerated, and people must be imprisoned. What about the lies, deceptions, and manipulations of the Gülen mission organization? Is lying not a form of corruption? If yes, then why do people not take action against these offenses? Gülen himself has given orders for his followers to bribe judges and not to take a step back. But most humans consider lying to be a despicable act. To prevent them from lying, some nations have passed laws with a view to punishing the liars. For example, in the U.S. those who lie in court are punished by imprisonment. Yet, many Gulenists do not hesitate to lie to the American people and to the world, if lies bring them power, monetary gains, and respect.
We have seen in the past that liars were able not only to bring wealth, fame, and power to themselves, but they also succeeded in enslaving a large number of people by combining lies with their power to manipulate. For example, Gülen claimed that Erdogan tried to end his empire. If that is true, why has Gülen become internationally famous and gained more power during the AKP party’s rule? This charge does not play out because, for example, in Kurdistan Foreign Minister Davutoglu told Prime Minister Barzani to help Gülen schools. Even in the United States, Foreign Minster Davutoglu talked to Hillary Clinton about Gülen about his charter schools, admonishing her that they should be supported. Among the many examples, even in Kazakhstan Gülen had some problems, so that Prime Minister Erdogan intervened and helped Gülen not to have his schools closed there. So Gülen knows how to use the people for his gain, but after he gets what he wants, he slanders and defames them if they do not genuflect to him.
Gülen’s power struggle is based on prevarications and equivocation. Gülen tells the public that his mission organization does not have a hierarchy, but in reality the Gülen movement is very hierarchical, and, like the Catholic pope, Gülen is the main person making the decisions. Gülen and his followers claim that Gülen is not the leader of a mission organization, and he has nothing to do with the operation of schools and activities, but in reality he went ballistic when Erdogan tried to close down his preparatory schools in Turkey. In reality Gülen gives monthy meetings with continent leaders, country leaders, region leaders, state leaders, and media leaders to discuss his mission organization. Gülen claims he does not know how many schools were organized around the world, but in reality he knows exactly and gives his media the precise numbers when it is needed. Gülen claims they are not political, but in reality they are trying to remove an elected prime minister. Gulenists claim they are moral and ethical and that only people who do not follow them are involved in unethical behaviors such as making sex tapes, bribery but in reality so much unethical conduct within the organization is going unnoticed. In 1994, one of Gülen’s teachers in Central Asia sexually abused a boy and nothing happened to him, but that is just one among many misdeeds, which includes denying the existence of the Kurds for a long time and calling Kurds terrorists for defending their basic rights. Gülen has rejected the labeling of his organization as a gang, saying those who uttered this word committed traitorous behavior. But it is ok for Gulen to call Kurdish organizations terrorists?
Where does Gülen get his rights? Gülen teaches his followers that his mission group is a tolerant organization and the one chosen by God, and, therefore, no one has a right to criticize it because it is tolerant toward everyone. Yet, Gülen has exacerbated the polarization of the Turkish people into “them” and “the U.S.”; it happily exploits the divisions among the society, playing the left and right against each other for its own benefits. For example, as mentioned, he supported the AKP in the past, but now has aligned himself with the secular and left wing party, the CHP, against the AKP party. Gülen seeks to create his own parallel society that he hopes will be dominant
When the Prophet Mohammed died in the early 7th, in a sense Islam died as well. The division among the Muslims began also. The reason for the division was a power struggle originating from the question of who would succeed the Prophet Mohammed as leader of the Muslims. Since then Islamists have been at war among themselves. However, when the Prophet Mohammed died, he left only one religion of Islam, his way of life, captured in the Quran and also the notion of the Muslim community. After his death, the Muslim community divided over the differences mostly derived from political, social, or ethnic compositions. A true Muslim should follow only Mohammed’s way of life and the Quran’s teaching, so when we look at Erdogan’s and Gülen’s fight, we realize that it is not about justice, equality, and truth, but rather about a power struggle. Gülen criticizes Prime Minister Erdogan’s government for being corrupt, degrading him for his actions, and defaming him for not being transparent. It makes me laugh to consider who is speaking. Are Gülen and his followers transparent? The movement itself is anything but transparent because they are the most secretive organizations anywhere and are up to their necks in dirty tricks. The single most distinguished feature of the Gülen movements is the massive effort it devotes to creating a public image of itself that is totally at odds with reality. The question is why has Gülen’s organization been so successful? The simple answer is deception, manipulation, slander, and fear; it has nothing to do with their being chosen by God or bringing peace and love. Rich businessmen donate millions, and civil servants and skilled manual workers also contribute to the Gülen missionary organization. Does the public know about all this? Without giving the prime minister’s name, Gülen called him Pharaoh among his other condemnations and degradations; yet fifty percent of the people of Turkey voted for Erdogan and support him. What is he doing that makes Gülen not respect the fifty percent of the will of the people? The public face is altruistic but the veil of secrecy is selfish.
Gülen likes to portray himself as the only modest preacher and the one with absolute truth with the rest not being modest preachers and instead betraying his goal of bringing everyone to follow his teaching. The method he uses is that rather than building mosques, he is building schools where he can indoctrinate the students to follow him. There is no difference between his education and indoctrination. In reality education is the seeking of facts, and learning about what is true, and what is not. Indoctrination is about influencing people to believe in supposed facts, without being able to support these new facts with anything but opinion. In November 2011, Gülen called upon the Turkish military to attack the Kurdish guerrilla groups, “Locate them, surround them, break up their units, let fire rain down upon their houses, drown out their lamentations with even more wails, cut of their roots and put an end to their cause.” And still ignorant Americans and self-declared academicians see Gülen as peace loving, harmless, tolerant and ecumenical. We all know, however, whoever criticizes Gülen is destroyed. What kind of Man of God and Peace will curse and ask for killing other human beings?
In conclusion, Gülen realized Erdogan was getting too much attention and credit and that the only way to stop him was for him to wage a campaign of defamation and deceit, intended to spread lies and misinformation about the AKP and Prime Minister. Gülen and his followers’ campaign lacks honesty, fairness and clean political competitions: it is basically lies, distortion, and slander. Gülen ‘s followers projected Gülen as being the only human being with whom Allah spoke in person, chose him, and gave him this mission. Now he has “uncovered” these corruption cases within the minister’s families to damage the AKP government’s reputation when Erdogan liked to portray his administration as one that would never be prone to corruption. If the AKP is now perceived as equally corrupt as its predecessors, it will be a huge blow that will probably lead to Erdogan’s party getting fewer votes, but also the people will see what Erdogan has done for Turkey and recognize the double standard of Gülen’s mission organization. I think the Prime Minister will and should seek out corruption, should investigate it, and should not tolerate it, but also the Prime Minister should go after Gülen’s financial empire one by one and investigate where the money comes from. How has the contributors’ money been used? How can an NGO become a profitable organization, such as some of the Gulenists’ hospitals, banks, and schools, among others, have done? Erdogan should investigate how some Gulenists illegally obtain diplomatic passports. He should find, investigate, and punish those who are informers and share government classified information with Gülen. Since the people do not democratically elect Gülen, he has no right to have this information, and it is unethical to obtain it, I think Erdogan will uncover their corruption and will go after Gülen’s empire incrementally. The current fight will have a domino effect on the Gülen movement domestically and internationally.
Hundreds of American protesters poured into the neighborhood of Gülen’s compound in Poconos, Pennsylvania. The protesters chanted that Gülen is the most dangerous person on the face of the earth. He has nothing to do with interfaith dialogue or peace or love. Some Americans now are aware of at least a few of his illegal activities include forcing teachers and employees to pay back certain percentages of their salary to his mission organization and bringing non-qualified teachers from Turkey, thereby leaving out American teachers in places where unemployment reaches high levels. This kind of protest will not end there, because now Pandora’s box is open. We already see that some of his schools in Uzbekistan have been closed down, where once anyone who spoke against him was sued or imprisoned. From now on this power nexus might change, and many people will start to express themselves about the Gülen organization and its power.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to The Kurdistan Tribune, Kurdishaspect.com, Mindanao Times and Kurdish Media.You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
Soon world leaders will join together in New York. The world expects the new President of Iran, Hassan Rohani, to be in the spotlight. In an interview with NBC, President Rohani insisted that Iran has no intention of developing weapons of mass destruction. On his Twitter account Hassan Rohani wished Jews worldwide a Shanah Tovah. In addition, Iran released eleven prominent dissidents and human rights activists, including Nasrin Sotoudeh, Mohsen Aminzadeh and others. Continue reading
History tells us civil wars are usually resistant to outside solutions. Hate usually runs deep, and often many parties are involved with all of them having different interests, so that it is hard to satisfy every group. In Syria, Turkey supports a radical Islamist group to gain influence against the Kurdish minority. Those who fight in Syria are the Islamic rebels; they are not American allies; and they are not going to defend American national interests. Continue reading
With the PKK–Turkish government peace process once more sadly hanging by a thread, the Turkish media and especially the Gülenist media have already launched a pre–emptive blame game. We already know for a fact that Gülen and his followers never wanted the Turkish government to talk to the PKK or to listen to what the Kurds would request in order to end the struggle. Gülen and his followers believe the only way to solve the Kurdish problem is to convert and assimilate them into their religious belief and thus their way of life. Continue reading
President Obama and some US allies are now accusing President Assad of using chemical weapons against his citizens without showing any evidence to shape the view of the American people and as a pretext to intervene with military action against the Assad regime. We all know that in a war civilians will die; furthermore, American intervention may turn a regional multipolar war into truly international escalation. Continue reading
