Report: Video Magnolia Science Academy A Turkish Imam Gulen Charter School Khadijah Ghafur Sentenced

January 16, 2016 By administrator

Gulen The Gulen Movement is fantastic at advertising, PR, and bestwowing fake honors on their students, politicians, local media and academia. The Parents4Magnolia blog is NOT American parents it is members of the Gulen Movement in damage control mode. Magnolia Science Academy, Pacific Technology School and Bay Area Technology is the name of their California schools. They are under several Gulen NGOs: Pacifica Institute, Willow Education, Magnolia Educaiton Foundation, Accord Institute, Bay Area Cultural Connection. Hizmet aka Gulen Movement will shamelessly act like satisifed American parents or students. They will lie, cajole, manipulate, bribe, blackmail, threaten, intimidate to get their way which is to expand the Gulen charter schools. If this doesn’t work they play victim and cry “islamophobia”. Beware of the Gulen propagandists and Gulen owned media outlets. DISCLAIMER: if you find some videos are disabled this is the work of the Gulen censorship which has filed fake copyright infringement complaints to youtube

Khadijah Ghafur Sentenced in Charter School Case, another cult operated charter school

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Source: http://magnoliascienceacademy.blogspot.ca/2016/01/khadijah-ghafur-sentenced-in-charter.html?spref=tw

https://twitter.com/GooseNetworkUSA/status/688572141185273856

Argentine-Armenian Journalist Publishes Book on Gülen Movement

December 16, 2014 By administrator

BUENOS AIRES (Agencia Prensa Armenia)—”Erdogan and Gülen are the extremes of the same policy. The struggle for power in Turkey is deepening further and the Turkish society is trapped in this dispute,” said the chief editor of Argentina’s Prensa Armenia news agency Pablo Kendikian regarding the latest arrests of journalists in Turkey linked to the Hizmet movement.

Pablo Kendikian has recently published a book, “Fethullah Gülen,” which explains the history of the Gülen movement and its global reach.

“The attempt to silence the press is condemnable, but we must also remember that not long ago the Gülen Movement promoted these actions and persecuted those who did not share the values and lifestyle that Gülen and Erdogan wanted for Turkey,” added Kendikian.

“We cannot ignore that Gülen was part of the construction of the repressive and the parallel state that Erdogan fed when they were allies. Today the Gülen Movement shown itself as the victim, but the former actions together led a real ‘witch hunt’ against those who opposed the Islamization of the Turkish state,” said Kendikian referring to the Ergenekon scandal in the last years and the arrests of Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener, both for writing about the Gülen Movement.

Turkish witch hunt, Erdogan Islamist “Tahsiyeciler” versus the Gulen Islamist movement

December 16, 2014 By administrator

By Mustafa Akyol,

On Dec. 14, Turkey woke up to breaking news: Turkish police detained 25 people, including top media figures and police officers, simultaneously raiding addresses in 13 cities across the country. The detainees included Ekrem Dumanli, the editor-in-chief of Zaman, Turkey’s top-selling newspaper, and Hidayet Karaca, the director of STV, a news channel. What they all had in common was their affiliation with the Fethullah Gulen movement — an Islamic community that once was the best ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but which turned into his worst enemy after the corruption investigations of December 2013. Report Al-Monitor’s

What made these arrests even more controversial was that they were foretold by the mysterious “Fuat Avni,” a faceless Twitter account that claims to be a hidden deep throat within the top echelons of the Erdogan government. With some 629,000 followers (@fuatavnifuat), this account wrote on Dec. 11, or three days before the arrests, that “the Tyrant” (i.e., Erdogan) has ordered a new crackdown on opposition media and some 150 journalists would be arrested soon. Since then, supportive crowds have been flocking to the building of the daily Zaman, which “Fuat Avni” identified as the main target of the upcoming raid. On Sunday, the warnings turned true, when the police indeed came to Zaman to detain Ekrem Dumanli, in the midst of a large crowd cheering for press freedom.

Yet, at least so far, the “crackdown on opposition media” has been less widespread than what Fuat Avni had predicted. As the press reported, the detainee list includes some 31 names, at the top of which is Fethullah Gulen himself. (But his arrest was impossible, since he has lived in Pennsylvania, in the United States since 1999.) Others are either certain policemen alleged to be members of the movement, or certain journalists and film producers. And they are all blamed of leading or taking part in an “operation” against an Islamist group called “Tahsiyeciler,” which the Gulen movement allegedly sees as a threat or rival to itself.

The “Tahsiyeciler,” or, literally, “those who make footnotes,” are a small Turkish Islamist community that claims to follow the teachings of Islamic scholar Said Nursi (1878-1960). “Yet they are more radical in ideology than most Nursi followers,” an expert on this tradition told me, “in that they denounce democracy and advocate an Islamist state.” Yet, the same expert added that the group has never been violent. However, both the leader of the group, Mehmet Dogan, and 10 of his followers were arrested in 2010 in a widespread detention of alleged al-Qaeda members all across Turkey, which was then reported in the international media, including The New York Times.

Dogan spent some 17 months in prison, but was later released due to a controversy about the evidence: On the hand grenades that were allegedly found in his home, fingerprints were found that belonged to the very police who raided the place. The police explained this as a result of not wearing gloves, but the suspects insisted that it was the police themselves who put the hand grenades there, just to be able to label the suspects as terrorists.

In August, some members of the Tahsiyeciler, who believed that they were victims of a conspiracy, went to a prosecutor to complain about the “parallel structure” — or the alleged Gulen movement network and the judiciary, about which Erdogan has been calling for complaints. The prosecutor who ordered the Dec. 14 arrests based his accusations on this complaint. The detained policemen are blamed for conspiring against Tahsiyeciler by putting weapons in their homes just to “find” them.

But what about the journalists? That is where things get tricky. The journalists are accused by the prosecutor of arranging the “propaganda side” of the scheme against Tahsiyeciler. Some of them are even accused of writing the script for a TV series on STV, titled “Tek Türkiye” (“One Turkey”), in which the Tahsiyeciler group is depicted as a terror group controlled by an evil cabal that tries to destabilize Turkey. The prosecutor argues that Gulen followers within the media and security forces worked hand in hand, in a hierarchy, to cook up a conspiracy.

Notably, this was the very logic used by both the pro-Gulen media and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government when they were allies (2007-11), to defend the imprisonment of many secularist journalists accused of acting on the orders of a would-be junta in the military. That is why many are correct today in reminding the spokesmen of the Gulen movement that what they protest today is exactly what they did just a few years ago: to jump from one alleged crime to a larger conspiracy theory, to demonize and punish a large group of people, whose only “crime” may be just to share an ideology or community.

The crucial question is whether the temporarily detained journalists will be ordered arrested by judges for a trial in custody, which could put them in jail for a long time. That is what happened during the “coup cases” of 2007-11, when dozens of journalists were imprisoned for months and even years. In that case, Turkey would be just repeating the same nightmare, only with different actors in different positions. Some pro-Gulen journalists who were once cheering for the arrest of “coup collaborators” would find themselves as the new “coup collaborators” in jail.

Meanwhile, the AKP government and Erdogan seem to recognize that what they are doing is a witch hunt — but a necessary one. (In fact, Erdogan openly declared in June that he would not shy from a “witch hunt” against the Gulen movement.) But they give the assurance that this is “the final battle” before a truly wonderful democracy — or, say, the witch hunt to end all witch hunts. Many others fear, however, that this might just be the beginning of a darker, more authoritarian era, where the hunt for “the traitors” to the nation may never end.

Mustafa Akyol is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse, a columnist for the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News, and a monthly contributing opinion writer for The International New York Times. His articles have also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian. On Twitter: @AkyolinEnglish

Top Turkish court rules Gülen movement divulger suffered ‘rights violation’

June 19, 2014 By administrator

ANKARA

Avcı’s book, “Haliç’te Yaşayan Simonlar: Dün Devlet Bugün Cemaat” (Devoted Residents of Haliç: Yesterday, State, Today, Religious Community), was one of the first that dug deep inside Gülen’s movement.

Hurriyet daily news The Constitutional Court ruled June 18 that the rights of a former police chief who was sentenced to 15 years for a book in which he allegedly exposed the influence of the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen were violated.

The ruling may clear the way for a retrial of former Eskişehir police chief, Hanefi Avcı, who has been imprisoned for four years.

Avcı’s lawyers had filed an individual application in which they argued that the process breached regulations on lengthy detentions and the principle of a fair trial.

Lawyer Fidel Okan said they would file an application at the Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office for Avcı’s release.

Avcı, who said he was formerly a follower of Gülen, accused the movement of pulling strings within Turkey’s police, judiciary and intelligence services. His claims sparked debate about the influence of religious communities in key Turkish state institutions.

Recently, government officials have accused Gülen’s followers of being behind the graft probe investigation that has implicated four ex-ministers and business circles close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Massive purges have been orchestrated within the police department and the judiciary, as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan even pointed to “a parallel state” aiming to topple the government.

June/19/2014

FBI ‘raids 19 schools associated with Turkish Imam Gülen’

June 14, 2014 By administrator

By Doug Livingston
Beacon Journal education writer

U.S. federal agents have raided 19 charter schools, including three in Ohio, where an FBI criminal investigation in Cleveland has led to search warrants in Indiana and Illinois over the past week, Ohio-based Beacon Journal has reported.

Concept Schools, a charter school operator headquartered near Chicago, manages 19 charter schools in Ohio, second only to Texas with 44 such schools. There are nearly 140 charter schools, spread across 26 states, reportedly associated with Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic cleric exiled from Turkey, living in Pennsylvania.

Concept Schools, which emphasizes math and science, has been investigated previously by the U.S. Department of Labor for its use of foreign workers. Ohio audits found that public money for the schools had been used improperly for visas, according to the report.

The Turkish government has recently started an international campaign against the global network of schools affiliated with Gülen, the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) ally-turned-nemesis.

Source: www.ohio.com

Azerbaijan attacks the Gülen movement

May 23, 2014 By administrator

Azerbaijan seems to join the campaign by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan against a religious movement led by Imam Muslim residing in the United States Fethullah Gülen.

Erdogan said that members of the Gülen movement intend to bring down his government, and during the last year, he led a crackdown where all barred against the alleged members Gülenistes. On April 8, Erdogan told members of his ruling Justice and Development he had discussed this motion with Azerbaijani officials during a visit to Baku in April and was given a list of Azerbaijanis considered supporters Gülen. Azerbaijan is the closest regional ally of Turkey.

For several years, the Azerbaijani government has tried to restrict the activities of Islamist groups, but, until recently, had made no public action against supporters of Gülen. These people – called nurçular referring to Sunni theologian Said Nursi 20th century, which inspired the education initiatives Gülen – do not carry the same weight in Azerbaijani society as they have in Turkey. But over the past two weeks, there were several indicators that Baku changed its position.

Representatives of the Gülen movement deny the allegations Erdogan of having engaged in anti-state activity – but nervousness against groups critical of government is strong in Azerbaijan. In recent weeks, rampant speculation on social networks and pro-government media in Baku focused on the fact that members of the Azerbaijani government could sympathize with the Gülen movement. A suspected sympathizer Gülen, spokesman of the Presidential Administration Elnur Aslanov was fired on March 17.

The Azerbaijani government has not commented on the information. But without doubt, the events speak for themselves already.

In early March, Khalik Mammadov, Vice-President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) has announced that the energy company managed by the government took over management of 11 secondary schools in Turkish 13 centers of exam preparation universities and the private University of Baku-based Caucasus, all run by a Turkish company called educational CAG Öğrətim (Age Education).

Since 2011 SOCAR launched a network of schools in the alleged purpose is to improve the educational standards of Azerbaijan. CAG Öğrətim, now known as the International Centre for Education in Baku, Azerbaijan works since 1992 and has enjoyed a reputation for producing students disciplined sensitive to Islamic ethics and able to enter universities leading in the world.

CAG Öğrətim never acknowledged a link with the Gülen movement, but most education specialists from Azerbaijan and policy experts saw its facilities within the school network in 140 countries of the Gülen movement. Öğrətim AG is part of the International Association of Manufacturers and Entrepreneurs of Turkey and Azerbaijan, a group that contains many Turkish companies that uphold principles of Gülen.

Representatives of SOCAR did not elaborate on the interest of the conglomerate in schools but CAG Öğrətim Caucasus University was acquired last year and some observers see a link with suspicions of Turkey on the Gülen movement. “I think for the Azerbaijani authorities, the idea is definitely that” we can control more effectively if we manage, “commented specialist Bayram Balci Turkey to Paris, who worked in Baku for the French Institute of Anatolian Studies (IFEA).

In March, in a move seen as an attempt to target the finances of Gülen, Turkey closed private schools associated with Gülen who, like during Araz CAG Öğrətim, prepare students for university entrance exams. Erdoğan called on other countries to follow this example.

Balci explained that the Turkish government has probably called the “fraternal” Azerbaijan, a country which shares linguistic and cultural ties with Turkey, “pay attention” to these schools. “For the Azerbaijani government, it is a good opportunity to show Ankara Baku is always in solidarity with Ankara.”

SOCAR partner of Turkey longtime seems a natural candidate for any exercise. The spokesman for the company could not be reached for comment. Similarly, CAG Öğrətim has not responded to requests for interviews on the transition to SOCAR. The rector of the University of Caucasus Sanic Ahmet told EurasiaNet.org he prefers not to discuss the question “for a while.” Even if there was no pressure from Ankara, Azerbaijani leaders seem to have reason to be wary of schools and centers of exam preparation CAG Öğrətim. Outside Baku, schools exist in key regional centers such as population Ganja, Lankaran and Sumgait and more distant locations. This presence in the regions is a potential source of concern to the Azerbaijani government, which has faced large-scale regional events in recent years some observers believe.

“As former students of these schools, as elsewhere in the world, they have their own community. In Azerbaijan, where political parties and other institutions have been weakened, their network [school] … is more distinguished, “said Altay Goyushov, a professor of Islamic history at the State University of Baku. “This is what the Azerbaijani government does not like: The competition.”

Yet Erestin Orujlu, director of the research center East-West of Baku, says some officials use what happens against this movement in Azerbaijan simply to “weaken the position of the other.”

Aside Aslanov a published list of alleged Gülenistes Azerbaijan has also updated the names of Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov, the head of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations Elshad Iskenderov and ironically Mammadov of SOCAR.

As Aslanov, who now works at the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Defence denied the allegations about the alleged affiliation of Defence Minister Hasanov with the Gülen movement. Other persons named above have not commented publicly.

For some Azerbaijanis, silence is not a surprise. The allegations are “fabricated” accused Orujlu. “The Azerbaijani government does not face any threat of nurcu movement.”

Editor’s Note:

Shahla Sultanova is a freelance journalist focusing on Azerbaijan.

Eurasianet.org

Friday, May 23, 2014,
Stéphane © armenews.com

ALegiStorm search: shows that between 2000 and 2014, over $3 million was spent for American lawmakers’ trip to Turkey,

May 15, 2014 By administrator

See more detailed list on AlegiStrom
- Date01/01/2000 – 05/12/2014
- Destination by CountryTurkey

View Details / PDF	Traveler/ Dates	Sponsor	Approver	Destination/ Purpose	Cost
	Hupman, William R. III (Will) 04/18/14-04/27/14	Mid-Atlantic Federation of Turkic American Associations	Griffith, Rep. Morgan (-VA)	Istanbul, Turkey – Izmir, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish officials regarding U.S.-Turkey relations	$2,495.00
	Miller, Joel Glen 04/18/14-04/27/14	Mid-Atlantic Federation of Turkic American Associations	Guthrie, Rep. Brett (-KY)	Ankara, Turkey – Istanbul, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish officials regarding U.S.-Turkey relations	$2,580.00
	Brody, Perry Finney 04/18/14-04/26/14	Pacifica Institute	Vela, Rep. Filemon (-TX)	Ankara, Turkey – Cappadocia, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish government officials; toured historical sites; met with religious leaders	$2,025.00
	Chao, Daniel See 04/18/14-04/26/14	Pacifica Institute	Napolitano, Rep. Grace (-CA)	Istanbul, Turkey – Cappadocia, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish government officials; toured historical sites; met with religious leaders	$1,725.00
	Hashemi, Cookab Vontenc 04/18/14-04/26/14	Pacifica Institute	Speier, Rep. Jackie (-CA)	Ankara, Turkey – Cappadocia, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish government officials; toured historical sites; met with religious leaders	$2,025.00
	Watkins, Stanley (Stan) 04/18/14-04/26/14	Pacifica Institute	Rush, Rep. Bobby(-IL)	Ankara, Turkey – Cappadocia, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish government officials; toured historical sites; met with religious leaders	$2,025.00
	Gahan, Christopher Taketo (Chris) 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Alliance	Toomey, Sen. Pat(-PA)	Istanbul, Turkey – Izmir, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish business and government leaders; visited historic sites; attended meetings with Tur… more	$2,525.00
	Greengrass, David 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Federation of the Southeast	Cohen, Rep. Steve (-TN)	Ankara, Turkey – Ephesus, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish and U.S. officials; visited historic sites	$3,276.00
	Hall, James E. (Jim) 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Federation of the Southeast	Fincher, Rep. Stephen (-TN)	Ankara, Turkey – Ephesus, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish and U.S. officials; visited historic sites	$3,276.00
	Hall, William Taylor (Taylor) 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Federation of the Southeast	Duncan, Rep. Jeff(-SC)	Ankara, Turkey – Ephesus, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish and U.S. officials; visited historic sites	$3,276.00
	Hingson, Constantine Curtis (Dean) 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Federation of the Southeast	Coats, Sen. Dan(-IN)	Ankara, Turkey – Ephesus, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish and U.S. officials; visited historic sites	$2,525.00
	Kennedy, Michael J. 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Alliance	Hatch, Sen. Orrin(-UT)	Espherus, Turkey – Istanbul, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish business and government leaders; visited historic sites; attended meetings with Tur… more	$2,525.00
	Lynch, Christopher Watson (Chris) 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Alliance	Cardin, Sen. Ben(-MD)	Espherus, Turkey – Istanbul, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish business and government leaders; visited historic sites; attended meetings with Tur… more	$2,525.00
	Murphy, Melissa Chandler 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Federation of the Southeast	Wilson, Rep. Joe(-SC)	Ankara, Turkey – Ephesus, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish and U.S. officials; visited historic sites	$3,276.00
	Titus, Courtney D. 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Federation of the Southeast	Rice, Rep. Tom(-SC)	Ankara, Turkey – Ephesus, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish and U.S. officials; visited historic sites	$3,276.00
	Verett, Whitney L. 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Federation of the Southeast	Rogers, Rep. Mike (-AL)	Ankara, Turkey – Ephesus, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish and U.S. officials; visited historic sites	$3,276.00
	Weinstein, Matthew Bryan (Matt) 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Federation of the Southeast	Byrne, Rep. Bradley R.(-AL)	Istanbul, Turkey – Ankara, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish and U.S. officials; visited historic sites	$3,276.00
	Williams, Jeri Brett (Brett) 04/12/14-04/19/14	Turkic American Federation of the Southeast	Bachus, Rep. Spencer (-AL)	Ankara, Turkey – Ephesus, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish and U.S. officials; visited historic sites	$3,276.00
	Borck, Thomas J. Jr. (Tom) 04/11/14-04/19/14	Turkish American Federation of Midwest	Rokita, Rep. Todd(-IN)	Istanbul, Turkey – Ankara, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish government officials, businessmen, journalists and scholars regarding Turkish histo… more	$3,315.89
	Holcomb, Jennifer D. (Jenn) 04/11/14-04/19/14	Turkish American Federation of Midwest	McCollum, Rep. Betty (-MN)	Ankara, Turkey – Istanbul, Turkey – … more Met with Turkish government officials, businessmen, journalists and scholars regarding Turkish histo… more	$3,315.89
643 results

Azerbaijan Cracks Down on Mullah Gülen Movement, Azerbaijan’s Syria-Problem, SCO Fights Color Revolutions & Drug Trafficking

April 24, 2014 By administrator

By Christoph Germann | April 20, 2014

Although the U.S.-backed Gülen movement has tried to topple Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan by all available means, the controversial political leader managed to achieve a decisive victory in Turkey’s recent local elections, which were viewed as a “referendum” on the Erdogan-led government. The Turkish PM did not waste any time by celebrating and instead continued his crackdown on the Gülen movement. Less than a week after the vote, the fight against the vast network of CIA puppet Fethullah Gülen led Erdogan to Azerbaijan, where Hizmet enjoys a strong presence:
Gülen: Top Issue in the Agenda of Erdoğan’s Visit to Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan has always had a tremendous importance for the Gülen movement, partly because that is where they started to expand and where they met success. Further development throughout the Caucasus and post-Soviet Central Asia helped them become one of the most powerful and influential transnational Islamic movement present in more than 130 countries. Still, Azerbaijan is the one place outside Turkey where the movement is the most involved. Indeed, numerous businesses and educational companies managed by Gülen’s disciples and sympathizers operate here. Among them are the highly visible international Qafqaz University, a network of 15 high schools and more than 20 Araz prep schools spread around the country. Besides, some major media, like the newspapers Zaman Azerbaijan, the radio station Burç and a TV channel, are close to the Gülen movement.
…
Azerbaijan Cracks Down On Gülen Movement
The transnational Turkish-Azeri Gülen community plays an important role in the bilateral relationship between the two countries and the Azerbaijani authorities have always been very supportive of Hizmet’s activities in Azerbaijan. But a few weeks ago, the Aliyev regime demonstrated its support of the Turkish PM by taking measures against the Gülen movement. In late February, while Erdogan stepped up his fight against Gülen’s shadowy network in Turkey, Azerbajani media reported that a similar “parallel structure” existed in Azerbaijan. Erdogan then shut down Gülen-associated private schools in order to target Gülen’s finances and asked other countries to follow suit. Within a few days, Hizmet’s schools in Azerbaijan were put under tight control:
Azerbaijan Backing Turkey’s Crackdown on Gülen Movement

In early March, Khalik Mammadov, vice-president of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR), announced that the government-run energy company had taken 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).
Çağ Öğrətim has never acknowledged a link with the Gülen movement, but most Azerbaijani education specialists and political experts have viewed its facilities as part of the Gülen movement’s 140-country network of schools. Çağ Öğrətim is part of the International Association of Turkish and Azerbaijani Manufacturers and Businessmen, a group that contains many Turkish companies that advocate Gülen’s principles.
…
Furthermore, the diplomatic missions of both Turkey and Azerbaijan reportedly provided the government in Baku with a list of local Gülen followers and emails showing ties between Azerbaijani officials and Hizmet were leaked to the media in early March. One of the implicated officials was Elnur Aslanov who is considered to be the “patron of the Azerbaijani branch of Gülen followers”. Shortly afterwards, Aslanov lost his job:
Turkey’s Gülen Controversy Spills over to Azerbaijan
Aslanov was sacked on March 17 after a decision by President Aliyev, but the document did not name a reason for his dismissal. He headed the political analysis and information department in the President’s administration since 2007, and is the son of Rabiyyat Aslanova, a ruling party MP, and reportedly has ties to the influential “grey cardinal” Ramiz Mekhtiyev, head of the President’s Administration. He was responsible for supervising the Center for Strategic Studies, some leading pro-governmental media outlets, and the pro-governmental youth organization Ireli. Two days later, Aslanov’s department was closed and merged with the Department of public-political issues.
A published list of alleged Azerbaijani Gülenists also included Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov and, ironically, SOCAR’s vice-president Khalik Mammadov, which has prompted some speculation whether Baku is really cracking down on Hizmet by placing its schools under SOCAR’s control or if the Gülenists are in league with the state-owned oil and natural gas corporation. Whatever the case may be, the Azerbaijani authorities have detained several Gülenists, who are also often referred to as “nurcu”, in the last few days after Erdogan’s visit to Baku and are now starting to blame them for Azerbaijan’s Syria-problem. In light of the increasing number of Azerbaijani fighters heading to Syria, Sheikh ul-Islam and Grand Mufti of the Caucasus Allahshukur Pashazadeh had already called for harsher measures against Islamic extremists including nurcus at the beginning of this month [emphasis mine]:
Allahshukur Pashazadeh calls for joint fight against wahhabi, nurcu and takfiris not honoring state law
Pashazadeh underlined the importance of joint fight against believers not honoring the laws of Azerbaijan Republic.

…

The Syria-Problem
Given Azerbaijan’s key role in NATO’s jihadi operations in the region, the increasing number of Azerbaijani terrorists in Syria is hardly surprising. By now, dozens of Azerbaijani fighters have sacrificed their lifes for the efforts of the NATO-GCC-Israel axis to topple the Syrian government and the Aliyev regime is totally fine with his as long as the jihadists do not come up with the idea of “liberating” their home country. One terrorist learned this the hard way when he returned to Baku a few days ago. But even if the jihadi mercenaries do as they are told and continue to fight in Syria, there might be an unpleasant surprise:
Armenia and Azerbaijan Share a Syria-Problem
The Syrian war is giving a headache to both Azerbaijan and Armenia, with jihadists heading into Syria from Azerbaijan and refugees heading out of Syria into Armenia. Most recently, Azerbaijani news outlets have reported that the leader of an Azerbaijani militant group has been captured by the rebel Al-Nusra Front, which recently took control of the ethnic Armenian town of Kessab, and allegedly sentenced to death.
…
It is unclear why the Azerbaijani terrorist leader was sentenced to death but the Al-Nusra Front usually does not need a good reason to kill somebody. Since joining “more moderate” terrorist groups can be dangerous, other Azerbaijani jihadists prefer to fight for one of the local al-Qaeda branches. Every other day media outlets in Azerbaijan report about a new video documenting the activities of Azerbaijanis in Syria. The presence of Central Asian terrorists in the Middle Eastern country was likewise first highlighted by online videos, which caused a great stir in their respective home countries. Although the local authorities have tried to contain terrorist recruitment in the ‘stans, many young men from the region continue to travel to Syria for jihad. Especially Kyrgyzstan struggles with this problem and so the grand mufti of Kyrgyzstan issued a statement this week calling on Kyrgyz youth to refrain from fighting in Syria. Moreover, two imams were removed from their posts and arrested:
Two imams banned from mosque service in Kyrgyzstan

Two members of extremist religious organizations banned in Kyrgyzstan worked as mosque imams in the Jalal-Abad Region in southern Kyrgyzstan.

The Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security confirmed the arrest: “Efforts are under way to check whether an imam from the Bazar-Korgon District and yet another one from the Suzak District in the Jalal-Abad Region have links to extremist religious organizations.”

Over the past few years Kyrgyz police have identified a number of cases where mosque imams were members of banned extremist religious organizations.
…
With members of extremist religious organizations such as Hizb ut-Tahrir working as mosque imams, the influx of Kyrgyz fighters into Syria comes as no real surprise. According to Kyrgyz officials, poor education of imams is one of the main reasons for the rise of Islamic extremism in the country. This has raised some concerns in neighboring Xinjiang, where the local authorities are facing a similar problem:
Xinjiang chairman vows to stop religious extremism

Nur Bekri, chairman of the government of west China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has vowed to stop religious extremism from spreading in the ethnic region.

In an article in Monday’s edition of the Xinjiang Daily newspaper, he said recent years have seen separatists, terrorists and religious extremists renew their efforts to sabotage Xinjiang’s prosperity and stability by perpetrating a slew of terrorist incidents.

He went on to say that religious extremism had misled people, particularly the youth, into terrorist activities, and that those deceived became chess pieces in a politically motivated plot.
…
SCO to Fight Color Revolutions, Drug Trafficking

Police in Xinjiang clamp down on religious extremism, terrorism and separatism, also known as the “three evil forces”, and the law enforcers do not stand for any nonsense. With NATO troops reducing their presence in Afghanistan, the Chinese government is keeping a close eye on the security situation in neighboring countries because Beijing attaches utmost importance to stability in the region. After leading Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah has already stated that the “door is wide open for the Taliban” to be included in political process, the Chinese authorities will be even more alert. Beijing is wary of developments, which could further Washington’s East Turkestan project. Therefore, China’s Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun used this week’s meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to warn against new waves of color revolutions:
Guo Shengkun: SCO States are under threat of “color revolutions”
Ministry of Chinese Public Security, Guo Shengkun, stated during a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Security Council secretaries meeting held in Dushanbe on Thursday that the SCO member-states are under the threat of external forces, which are initiating “color revolutions”.

Mr. Guo noted that the SCO should join forces and work out joint measures to combat interference in the internal affairs of the countries. He proposed strengthening the management of NGOs and to strengthen control over social networks in order to “identify, analyze, prevent, and resolve scenarios of ‘color revolutions’ repetition in a timely manner in order to strengthen peace and stability in the region.”
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Beijing: Islamists control regional drug trafficking routes

Extremist religious organizations, among them Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan affiliated with Al-Qaeda, control drug trafficking routes which contribute the lion’s share of their financing, Chinese Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun said on Thursday.

The notorious terrorist organizations, such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Jihad and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, are energetically returning to the region, and new terrorist organizations emerge and launch their operations, the Chinese minister told the SCO colleagues.

Many routes of drug trafficking are controlled by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Hizb ut-Tahrir and the link between terrorism and drug trafficking is growing closer, Guo said.
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As Shengkun rightly noticed, Washington’s jihadist mercenaries get paid with money from NATO’s opium trade, which is booming since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, because the drug money is “off the books”. Since the Central Asian authorities are partially complicit in the illegal drug trade, large quantities of Afghan heroin reach Russia and Europe via Central Asia. Small amounts of drugs are regularly seized and minor drug traffickers busted but this does not affect the multi-billion dollar trade with opium from Afghanistan:
Smuggling of more than 40 kg of Afghan heroin into Russia via Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan prevented in Tajikistan
Tajik special forces prevented the smuggling of more than 40 kg of Afghan heroin into Russia via territory of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, the public relations center of the State Committee of National Security of Tajikistan reported on Monday.
Wanted by Interpol drug-dealer from Kazakhstan detained in Bishkek

The employees of the National Central Bureau of Interpol in Kyrgyzstan detained a citizen of Kazakhstan, who is internationally wanted, in Bishkek Manas airport, the press service of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kyrgyzstan reported Friday.

The man was trying to fly to Turkey on a passport with different name and photo. The detained man suspected of illegal possession, distribution and sale of Afghan drugs, trafficking via Kazakhstan to neighboring countries.
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Christoph Germann- BFP Contributing Author & Analyst
Christoph Germann is an independent analyst and researcher based in Germany, where he is currently studying political science. His work focuses on the New Great Game in Central Asia and the Caucasus region. You can visit his website here
– See more at: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/04/20/the-new-great-game-round-up-april-20-2014/#sthash.kd15iHp6.dpuf

Haqqin.az: 41 members of Nur sect detained during police raid in Baku

April 15, 2014 By administrator

Yesterday, at night, in Yasamal district of Baku the police implemented a raid during which 41 Nur members were detained, Azerbaijani news portal “Haqqin.az” reports.

“In fact, the ephemeral threat towards nursizm has acquired realistic shapes, and now not only journalists, but also the security forces are involved in it,” notes the site.

As Police Department of Yasamal district told “Haqqin.az”, this raid was planned to be implemented a week ago. According to the information that the police had, a few hundred members of the Nur sect were periodically attending a two-story house located in one of the most popular door curtain shops in Baku “Capsella.” They were listened there to sermons and addresses of their leader, Fethullah Gulen. It is noteworthy that the owner of the house, which actually was turned into a den of Nurs in Baku, is still not known.

“Being informed that there were about three hundred Nurs gathered in the house, the Police Department began to develop a plan for capturing them. However, their plan foiled for some unknown reasons,” reads the article.

Despite the failure of the plan, which could become the biggest one in Azerbaijani history by the number of the detained people, the police developed another plan, the portal writes. However, only 41 Nurs were caught by the security forces this time. Most of them were released after the first interrogation.

It is noted also that the police has got an extensive literature of Nur, audio tracks of Nur leader of the Fethullah Gülen and other materials for ideological propaganda.

Only nine members of sect were kept at the police station. According to the security officials they will be re-released after one more interrogation, “Haqqin.az” writes.

According to an anonymous member of a sect, the detainees are really Nur members, but they are not related to F. Gulen “jemaat”.
“The house where they were detained is a private property. They were doing there namaz and were reading books,” said the source.
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.

Erdoğan takes battle with enemies beyond Turkish frontiers (Afghanistan to Pensylvania)

April 4, 2014 By administrator

REUTERS, ISTANBUL/ANKARA –

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s battle to root out the “terrorists” he says are embedded in the Turkish state is extending beyond its frontiers to Africa and Asia, further complicating foreign policy already hit by tensions with the Arab world and Western allies.

Last month, parents of the Yavuz Selim school in Kanifing, Gambia, received a letter announcing its immediate closure. A source at the school, run by the Hizmet organisation of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, said the decision had been conveyed to the principal in a one sentence missive.

Gülen’s Hizmet movement cites this as an example of Turkish pressure on governments to shut down Gülen schools, a key source of its influence and revenue at home and abroad, and discourage Hizmet-linked commerce from banking to construction.

Turkish Islamic lender Bank Asya, which has extensive dealings with Hizmet companies in Africa, reported it had suffered mass deposit withdrawals, weeks after a power struggle between Erdoğan and Gülen erupted in December.

Media said institutional depositors loyal to Erdoğan had withdrawn 20 percent of the bank’s deposits. Ahmet Beyaz, Chief executive of the bank, which has among its shareholders Kaynak Holding, which is close to Hizmet, told Reuters the bank was not in any danger. The government would not comment.

Erdoğan has declared Hizmet, long a mainstay of Turkish foreign policy, a terrorist movement using dirty tricks, including corruption allegations, blackmail and espionage to undermine him. His move to shut its schools in Turkey ignited the current confrontation.

“One of the greatest difficulties posed by the struggle against Hizmet is in diplomacy,” said a government official who declined to be named. “Right now Hizmet and its representatives are fully engaged in anti-government activities.”

“As it has been made public that the Hizmet schools will no longer be supported (by the Turkish government), a number of those countries do not want them to continue.”

The battle against Hizmet, long an instrument of Turkish soft power claiming millions of followers worldwide, has diverted effort from a foreign policy already in some disarray.

Very recently, Erdoğan was received as a hero in Egypt and his government cited in the West as a model for Islamic democracy. Now his ties with Arab capitals are icy, largely due to his siding with Islamist parties such as Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, and relations with the West tested by a graft scandal and what some see as growing authoritarian tendencies.

Seeking bread abroad

Hizmet denies using followers in the police and judiciary to launch a graft inquiry targeting Erdoğan family members, ministers and businessmen and make illicit recordings of top officials. Ankara fears further leaks ahead of presidential polls in August could undermine the government.

The movement, also known as Cemaat (JEH-maat), The Community, has for decades been a spearhead of Turkish cultural influence and commerce overseas, especially so in the assertive opening to Africa, the Middle East and Asia in the years after AKP took power in 2002.

“In Turkey, we were at pains not to get involved in an economic relationship with the government,” Tercan Baştürk, Secretary General of the Journalists and Writers Foundation, which speaks for Hizmet, said at its Istanbul headquarters.

“Instead, we directed all Hizmet supporters to go abroad and told them to seek their bread outside the country.”

It was long said there were three arms to Turkish diplomacy – the Foreign Ministry, Turkish Airlines and Hizmet.

Turkey currently has some 35 embassies in Africa, second only to France. About 15 opened in the last two years. The red Turkish flag flies, for instance, across Mogadishu, Turkish firms playing the lead role in post-war construction.

“A lot of this is due to the support of Gülen because in many places in sub-Saharan Africa the only real Turkish communities are Gülen-linked communities, whether schools or business, and the embassies were opened to support this drive,” said Sinan Ulgen, head of the Edam think tank in Istanbul.

Where Erdoğan has conducted a purge of alleged Gülen supporters in the police and the judiciary since December’s anti-corruption raids, Turkey’s embassies are now expected to a purge their relations with the cleric overseas to strangle income from enterprise, schools and donations.

“Almost overnight they (the Embassies) shift position where they are being asked to persuade those governments to close down those schools,” Ulgen said. “Of course, some governments may want to accept this demand from the Turkish side.”

Most likely to respond to Turkish displeasure would be states such as Gambia benefiting from direct aid from Ankara.

Afghanistan to Pensylvania

The Foreign Ministry itself is in some turmoil since it emerged that minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s office was bugged and talks with the security chief and army commanders on possible armed intervention in Syria was posted anonymously on Youtube.

Overseas schools, Turkish cultural institutes and business, like Hizmet’s presence in the Turkish state, have been built up over four decades. For much of that Gülen has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States, something that has for Erdoğan supported the thesis that Hizmet is part of a broad foreign-backed anti-Turkish plot.

When Erdoğan was first elected in 2002, he lacked educated specialists to press social and economic reforms he envisaged to ease curbs on religion, improving welfare and, foremost, rein in a military that had toppled four governments in as many decades.

He invited Hizmet to help and Hizmet obliged. The falling out has pushed Erdoğan into his biggest crisis in 12 years.

Hizmet runs 2,000 educational establishments in 160 countries, from Afghanistan to the United States. The schools, such as the Yavuz Selim in Gambia, are well equipped, teach a secular curriculum in English, and are popular, especially in poorer countries, with the political and business elite.

“Until six months ago, government officials, the President, the Prime Minister were going to these schools and praising them and saying they were important for peace in the world,” Baştürk said. “The government is pressing the Hizmet movement from outside to put it in difficulty inside (Turkey).”

Erdoğan has sought help from U.S. President Barack Obama in curbing “the man from Pennsylvania”. On a lower level he has spoken to the head of Pakistan’s Punjab about the schools.

The government accuses Hizmet overseas of running a propaganda campaign against the Turkish government through publications. Officials say the organisation is also carrying out other actions, unspecified, that can alarm host governments.

Hizmet says the Turkish government approaches different governments in different ways, according to local sensitivities.

“They say to the Russians ‘kick them out’, they are making pan-Turkish propaganda in their schools,” said Baştürk, referring to Russian sensitivities about Turkish-related populations in Russia, the Caucasus area and Central Asia. “We hear all this because we have friends there.

Assessing the full scale of Hizmet influence and its economic power is difficult because of the essentially secretive nature of some aspects; but Ankara clearly sees it as a threat.

Business sources say Turkish firms play a dominant role in construction in Kabul, where Hizmet opened a school weeks after the Taliban was ousted in 2001. Are those firms all Hizmet?

“Hizmet is not a movement with a membership,” Baştürk said. “Hizmet movement business people are a very heterogeneous structure. In Kabul, all businessmen are from the Hizmet movement on the one hand, and on the other, they are not.”

See more detailed list on AlegiStrom

Seeking bread abroad

Afghanistan to Pensylvania