The New Turkey |
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This is the central subject of the book. IntroductionThe Fethullahçıs who according to a leading chief of police have more than 5 million followers and billions of dollars at their disposal have tried to infiltrate the police forces since the 1980s. They could not get organized in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and chose the second big armed force, the police. According to the organization model of the parish on education they started with the police colleges and police academies. Once the students graduated they became the cadres that the “parish entrusted”. After 25 years the fruits of success were taken and the police organization has almost become the armed unit of the parish (highlighted remark: can this lead to legal problem?). Our thesis that an armed force exists against the TSK where the religious stream was not accepted and that it is organized on order and obedience was also the inspiration for the title of the book “army of the imam”. The steps of organizationThe organizing of the Fethullahçıs in the police started in the middle of the 1970s. The fact that right-wing political parties were governing had its effect. The long rule of the Motherland Party (ANAP) in the 1980s made it easier. Measures for preventionAttempts were made to prevent the parish from organizing within the police. But despite all denunciations and documents, also presented in the media these attempts did not succeed. Among the “leaked” information was a cassette that allegedly contained a speech Fethullah Gülen made to his disciples. The cassettes that resulted in an investigation against him and made him flee to the USA under the pretext of “medical control” were shown on TV on 18 June 1999. The station ATV presented them in the main news. In the speech Gülen said: “In order to walk towards the future you have to discover the key points of the system. This is important for our friends working at property and in the judicial sector. Do not go ahead by getting too prominent and making your existence known. Investigations with no resultThe superintendents İsmet Sezgin Şenel and Nihat Dündar started an investigation on fraud in a draw for duty at the Police Academy in 1991. In the end a few people were punished. In the following year under Yılmaz Ergun as General Director for Security two more investigations were started. During the investigation of superintendents İsmet Sezgin Şenel and Nihat Dündar the chief of the Department for Intelligence (İDB), Tuncer Meriç sent a 4-page report on 10 March 1992 stating inter alias: “The illegal organization 'Students of Fethullah Hoca' is organizing in our organization just like it does in all of Turkey. An important element in the initial report of the superintendents were the revelations of a student named R.Y. He entered the Police Academy in 1987. Being a religious person he became a member of the group. Later he got in conflict with the group and was excluded. Later R.Y. withdrew his allegations in a statement he signed at a notary because he was afraid of the group. The reports of the superintendents of 29 February 1992 (102 suspects) and 28 September 1982 (93 suspects) were handed over to the prosecutor at Ankara SSC. In July 1998 the Presidency of the Intelligence Department issued bulletin 70 under the title of “Radical right and reactionary (fundamentalist) activities”. Some of the schools run by the Gülen movement were named as (lise=lyceum; kolej=college): İzmir Yamanlar Fen Lisesi, İstanbul Fatih Koleji, İstanbul Safiye Sultan Kız Lisesi, Mersin Yıldırımhan Lisesi, Ankara Samanyolu Lisesi, Van Serhat Lisesi, Denizli Server Lisesi, Erzurum Aziziye Lisesi, Erzincan Otlukbeli Lisesi, Eskişehir Ertuğrul Gazi Lisesi, Sakarya Işık Lisesi, Manisa Şehzade Mehmet Türk Lisesi, Aydın Nizami Erkek Lisesi, Fatih Üniversitesi. In 1997 and 1998 the Tracing Council at the Prime Ministry published a report on reactionary activities not just in the army but in other places as well. According to these reports 2,956 people were detained in 1997 and 4,420 people were detained in 1998 for having participated in reactionary activities. On 10 January 1999 the journal “Enlightenment” (Aydınlık) published the leading story under the headline of “Fethullah took over the police”. The news was based on a denouncing letter of either a police officer or the secret service itself. The story included many names and stated that 95% of the Personnel Department belonged the Fethullah Parish. The initiative of 1999 Some names It is interesting to notice that people affiliated to the sect were promoted early to important position in intelligence, while others that had graduated earlier were sent to unimportant jobs in small provinces. For instance, Mustafa Gülcü (graduated 1978) was deputy chair of the intelligence branch. At the same time Celal Uzunkaya (graduated 1978) was the Director of the Intelligence Branch in İzmir, Arif Akkale (graduated 1979) was the Director of the Intelligence Branch in Ankara. There are rumours that some leading members of the police lost their jobs on conspiracy of the Fethullah Parish. In his book Hanefi Avcı mentions Mustafa Gülcü, at his time deputy chair of the central intelligence department. According to information in the book of Saygı Öztürk “Sermon beyond the Ocean” (Okyanus Ötesindeki Vaiz” Adil Serdar Saçan belonged to the team of nationalist Kemal Yazıcıoğlu. When he was dismissed from this post as Director of the Order Department in İstanbul the team was sent to various other places. Adil Serdar Saçan was one of the first to understand the “game” of the Fethullahçılar. They would send letters denouncing others of membership in a sect. At least five officers had been removed from their posts this way. Hanefi Avcı on the subjectIn his book of August 2010 Hanefi Avcı described how the parish organized in the police. He described why it was important to seize control over the intelligence department and the Presidency of KOM: They could have tried to gather information on persons and institutions this via theNational Intelligence Organization (MIT) but would not have got very far. The series of translated passages
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