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Gülen under probe as Turkish PM increases pressure

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n_65777_1U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. CİHAN Photo

A fierce rivalry between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the Gülen community acquired a new dimension with the announcement of legal action against U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen on charges of attempting to overthrow the government and the constitutional order.

The investigation against Gülen was launched by the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office on charges of “attempting to annul the government of the Republic of Turkey; or attempting to partially or entirely block the government from performing its duties,” according to private broadcaster CNNTürk.

Those who are accused of staging, planning or supporting military coups d’état are commonly charged with this crime.

The investigation was disclosed by Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik on April 30 during a live interview with news channel NTV, a day after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he would ask the United States to extradite Gülen, whom he accuses of plotting to topple him and undermine Turkey with allegedly concocted graft accusations and secret wiretaps.

“The investigation’s result is important for the survival of Turkey. This should be investigated as a problem of national security,” Çelik was quoted as saying by several news portals, citing NTV.

A prosecutor’s office which is in charge of “Crimes committed against the Constitution” will conduct the investigation, according to reports.

In addition to “attempting to annul the government of the Republic of Turkey; or attempting to partially or entirely block the government from performing its duties,” the investigation is also based on the crime of “founding and directing an organization,” the same reports said.

“There are serious allegations that concern espionage activities as well. We have observed leakages of the state’s most confidential meetings and efforts to create a nucleus within the state,” Çelik said.

The leakage Çelik refers to was about the release of a voice recording of a key Syria meeting at the Foreign Ministry with the participation of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, head of intelligence Hakan Fidan and other senior civilian and military officials. An Ankara prosecutor launched a separate investigation into the leakage, but the government officials put the blame on what they call the “parallel structure,” meaning the Gülen community, although speculation is continuing as to who actually taped the meeting, during which the officials discussed possible false-flag operations to drag Turkey into Syria’s war.

The government and the Gülen community have been engaged in a harsh struggle following the launch of a massive corruption and graft operation against government officials on Dec. 17, 2013. Phone conversations of Erdoğan and other governmental officials were posted on social media on a nearly daily basis on the eve of local polls on March 30, with the government accusing Gülenists in the police and judiciary of conducting a plot.

MGK meets

On the day news broke about the judicial probe against Gülen, the National Security Council (MGK) convened under the leadership of President Abdullah Gül. The Gülen community was discussed at a MGK meeting in January in which it took up the issue of some organizations and structures which pose serious threats to national security – the first indirect reference to the community at the body.

Yesterday’s MGK was still continuing in the late afternoon as the Hürriyet Daily News went to print.

Gov’t to demand Gülen’s extradition

With the launch of legal action against Gülen, the government could consider filing an appeal to the U.S. for the extradition of Gülen to Turkey in line with the 1979 Treaty on Extradition and Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters. The treaty obligates contracting parties to surrender to each other all persons who are being “prosecuted for or have been charged with an offense or are sought by the other party for the enforcement of a judicially pronounced penalty for an offense committed within the territory of the requesting party.”

If the requested party considers the offense for which extradition is requested to be of a political character then it may refuse to extradite the requested person. However, any offense committed or attempted against a head of state or a head of government or against a member of their families shall not be deemed to be an offense of a political character, the treaty reads.

Gülen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, when secularist authorities raised accusations of Islamist activity against him. He was acquitted of all charges in 2008.

Daily Sabah: Nur Gülen Movement bribe Azerbaijani officials for promotion of sect in this country

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Individuals linked to the leader of Nur Movement Fethullah Gülen bribed government officials in Azerbaijan in an operation approved by its leader, writes Turkish Daily Sabah in a letter addressed to Gülen. The mentioned Gulenletter leaked to the Internet.

According to the source the letter, penned by a Gülenist, reveals the movement’s financial power and machinations in Azerbaijan. The follower presented “financial report” of the movement’s activities in Azerbaijan for 2013.

“The report shows that the movement controls assets of over $2 million in the country and “presented gifts to influential people in Azerbaijan” worth $732,000, implying bribery, as well as expenses of over $3 million for “friends in state agencies,” Daily Sabah writes.
Note that recently Azerbaijani media, particularly the newspaper “Yeni Musavat” has disseminated information that the official circles of Turkey have provided the Azerbaijani government with a list of high-ranking officials of Azerbaijan in the administration of President Ilham Aliyev and the Azerbaijani government, which include or are related with such religious direction, as Nursizm.

The list of officials recruited by the sect of Fethullah Gülen include, the head of Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Elnur Aslanov, SOCAR vice president Khalig Mammadov, chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations Elshad Isgandarov, his deputy Gunduz Ismailov, Youth and Sports Deputy Minister Intigam Babayev, MP Jeyhun Osmanli, CSR Director under the Presidential Administration Farhad Mammadov, Chairman of the Youth Foundation Farhad Hajiyev.

Nur sect leader is Turkish billionaire Fethullah Gülen. He also owns large industrial and financial companies and holdings worldwide. Gülen owns a large network of schools and educational institutions. In 1998, Gülen was accused of attempting to overthrow the existing regime in secular Turkey. At the same time avoiding the punishment, he immigrated to the United States. When the AKP came to power all charges against him were dropped. Turkish Prime Minister R. T. Erdogan and the Justice and Development Party are accused of having ties to Gülen. According to various estimates, about five million people in Turkey and abroad (particularly in Azerbaijan and Central Asia) are involved in the Gülen movement.

Turkish PM Erdoğan vows to eliminate ‘parallel state’

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ANKARA

One of the most important messages the Turkish people conveyed through the March 30 polls was the authority given to the government for the full elimination of the parallel state, the prime minister has said, vowing they will n_64710_1not show even tiniest hesitation in doing so.

“The Turkish people gave us the vote of confidence. More importantly, they have given us the instruction to fight against the parallel state. They have given us the instruction for the elimination of this parallel structure whose treachery and espionage have come into the picture,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told his parliamentary group on April 8 in his party’s first meeting since the March 30 local polls.

The parallel state is the term the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials are using for the Fethullah Gülen community, or the Hizmet Movement. They accuse the Gülen movement’s members within police and judiciary of plotting against the government.

Erdoğan recalled the illegal listening of a key security meeting at the Foreign Ministry and its leak through social media as one of the latest attempts of espionage at the hands of this parallel state and stressed all measures against the perpetrators will be taken within democracy and the law.

“They will give an account of what they have been doing. But not before the parallel judiciary, but before the people’s judiciary,” he said.

Erdoğan said the Gülen community’s international links and espionage attempts will be scrutinized and informed that he raised the issue in his visit to Azerbaijan last week. He added the government will run after the unregistered economic activities conducted by the Gülen movement and said they will continue to find every Turkish Lira donated to his group.

Turkey Charges Launched Against Gülen Intel Chief

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Criminal charges are being brought against Ali Fuat Yılmazer, the intelligence chief behind the investigations which preceded the Ergenekon and other trials.
Sun, 30 Mar 2014
Aydinlikdaily The lawyers of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan have launched a criminal complaint Ali Fuat Yılmazer, the former intelligence official in charge of the Ergenekon, Balyoz and Oda TV operations. A travel ban BjqP1YFCYAEVOxYhas also been placed on Yılmazer.
Yılmazer, the former intelligence chief for Istanbul, appeared on the Bugün TV channel last week to make a series of accusations against PM Erdoğan regarding the Ergenekon and other plots, saying that the arrests of defendants in those cases were made with Erdoğan’s full knowledge and support. He also revealed that the decisions regarding those arrests were made by members of the Gülen Gang who had infiltrated the police department.

It was confirmed this year that the trials in question were a conspiracy against certain members of the Armed Forces and intellectuals who opposed the AKP and Gülen Gang, who were at that time in alliance. The evidence against the hundreds of defendants in these trials was found to have been fabricated. After open conflict broke out between the AKP government and the Gülen Gang in December 2013, these trials again became used politically, this time by the AKP to discredit their Gülenist rivals, who they accused of being fully and solely responsible for the plot. In this context, Yılmazer’s accusations are particularly inflammatory as they claim that Erdoğan was an equal partner in the sham trials.
After Yılmazer’s revelations prompted the legal action and travel ban against him, the prosecutor’s office in Ankara made a statement disputing his claims, stressing that they did not reflect the truth and that the Prime Minister does not have the authority to have anyone arrested.
The criminal complaint against Yılmazer points out the illegality of calling citizens to make statements and then arresting those people, a practice used by the investigating officials in the Ergenekon case et al. One of the best-known examples of this practice was in the arrest of former Turkish Chief of Staff İlker Başbuğ, who was called to make a statement before being arrested and jailed in 2012. The criminal complaint also points out that Yılmazer’s admission on television that he and his associates had made the arrests constituted a confession to a crime.

Source: aydinlikdaily.com

Turkish officials cancel green passport of Islamic scholar Gülen

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İSTANBUL, TODAY’S ZAMAN Report
The governor’s office of the eastern province of Erzurum has cancelled the green passport of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, citing some alleged irregularities in his obtaining the passport in 1990, the Turkish media reported on Friday.

Gülen, who resigned from the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) as a religious official and preacher in 1981, obtained the green passport after an application to officials in 1991 following adoption a new law that enabled resigned public servants to acquire passport.

Turkey’s green passport is a special passport that allows the bearer to travel visa-free to certain countries.

It is yet unclear whether Gülen will be able to obtain a normal Turkish passport or face any difficulties with travel following the cancellation.

The decision came after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stepped up his inflammatory rhetoric against the Hizmet movement, inspired by Gülen, accusing the Islamic scholar of plotting to unseat him, a claim which has been firmly denied by Gülen.

Nurullah Albayrak, Gülen’s lawyer, said the decision to cancel the scholar’s passport is politically motivated and has no legal basis. He said Gülen was granted a green passport after his application to the relevant authorities following the adoption of Article 4 of Law No. 5682, which allows certain state officials and retired or resigned public servants to apply for a green passport after a review of their status during their work.

Article 4 also allows those who have resigned from their posts to obtain a green passport after an extensive assessment of their profiles by the authorities. Albayrak underlined that the Religious Affairs Directorate had offered an endorsement for Gülen’s application in 1990 which had paved the way for Gülen to receive the passport.

Officials in the Erzurum governor’s office, however, claimed that the Religious Affairs Directorate’s endorsement was inconsistent with the legal requirements and was not legally enough to grant Gülen the green passport at that time.

Albayrak, however, dismissed that claim.

Tactics of Islam: Conquering America from Within (Turkish Imam Gulenest Movement) Book

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Book Description

DR. Aland D. Mizell (Author)

Publication Date: January 15, 2010
In the past, the Ottoman Empire could not defeat the West by the sword, so now Fethullah Gulen’s community systematically employs very different tactics to bring the West under Islamic rule. For profoundly anti-democratic goals they use America’s democratic values-freedom of speech, political correctness, tolerance, and multiculturalism-as tools for disseminating Gulen’s ideology. “You move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers…until the conditions are ripe… If you do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads. The time is not yet right. You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey… The work to be done is in confronting the world. Now, I have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you all-in confidence…trusting your loyalty and secrecy.” Fethullah Gulen to his followers “Aland Mizell has gathered valuable material to prove that Islam is not only active in its missionary activities but actually ahead of schedule. This book is a must read.” Dr. William Wagner, author of How Islam Plans to Change the World. “Aland Mizell’s book unveils the hidden truth about Gulen’s strategies for the Islamization of the world and he especially targets America.” Dr. Rebwar Fatah, a journalist and Director and Co-Founder of the London-based KurdishMedia.com Aland D. Mizell earned master’s degrees in political science and public administration and a doctorate in political science with an emphasis on politics and religion. He reads and speaks several languages, adding to the breadth of his three-decades of research on Islam with a focus on the Gulen movement.