How Turkish politics is spilling to other nations

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the crowd during his party's parliamentary group meeting at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara on October 2, 2018. He has accused Fethullah Gulen of funding terrorism. PHOTO | ADEM ALTAN | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Before Gulen and Erdogan fell out, they were bosom friends until the cleric accused the Turkish president of engaging in corruption.
  • Erdogan had asked the UN General Assembly to help him fight Gulen by closing down his extraordinary system of schools strewn all over the world.

The 90-minute drive from New York to Saylorsburg, in the heartland of Pennsylvania, was more of a sojourn.

We had been told that if we were “lucky” we would have a conversation with exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen — the man that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of terrorism — a charge he denies.

1857 Mount Eaton Road is the headquarters of the Gulen Movement — and to get to the compound, one has to go through a security check.

An armed US sentry watches as our car stops at the gate of Golden Generations Retreat Centre — also known as Chestnut Camp.

We stepped out and handed over our phones. A few phone calls were made and we were flagged into the wooded compound which President Erdogan claims is a training ground for terrorists.

KIDNAPPING

There is a good reason for the surveillance. On October 3, a few days after we left, an armed man had tried to gain access to the compound shortly after Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin warned that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation would launch overseas operations against Mr Gulen.

In reaction, Alliance for Shared Values, an umbrella body of all cultural organisations associated with Mr Gulen’s Hizmet Movement said:

“It is well known that the Turkish government has devised kidnapping plots against Mr Gulen, as well as executed successful kidnappings of his supporters around the world.

"We urge the US authorities to continue to hold Turkey accountable for its actions and threats against innocent people”.

Two days earlier, President Erdogan had asked the UN General Assembly and its members to help him fight Mr Gulen by closing down his extra-ordinary system of schools strewn all over the world.

ARRESTS

He had taken advantage of the UN forum to accuse Gulen supporters of exporting terrorism. So far, no country has heeded his call.

Instead, human rights groups accuse him of cracking down on supporters, shutting down thousands of schools, foundations and organisations linked to Mr Gulen and firing more than 125,000 government workers alleged to have ties to the 77-year old exiled cleric.

He has also imprisoned more than 50,000 people — and pushed thousands of middle class Turkish workers into exile.

Before Gulen and Erdogan fell out, they were bosom friends until the cleric accused the Turkish president of engaging in corruption.

A man who had an estimated six million followers inside Turkey, Mr Gulen was seen as a political threat. He had built a solid empire of media, banks and schools — straddling more than 100 countries.

EMPIRE

These include some leading schools in Kenya. In the United States alone, they form the largest group of so-called charter schools, with about 140 schools in 28 states, taking in more than $2.1 billion from taxpayers annually.

“He is not a terrorist. He is just a philanthropist who encourages love, tolerance and education for all,” Mr Mehmet Kilic, the US-based President of Journalists and Writers Foundation said.

As we walked into the retreat centre — the serenity of the place hit us. There was no opulence and no sign that this was the compound of a billionaire.

“He lives a very simple life. He relies on royalties from his books to survive,” one of his aides told us through an interpreter.

The retreat centre, as it is known among his Turkish supporters, is a laid back compound where students come to learn about the Islamic faith: Gulen is their teacher. We are told that the property had been purchased by Turkish-Americans in 1990s.

SICK

In one of the dining rooms, we queued with students for tea and bread.

“You can ask him any question you want,” Mr Kilic told us as we prepared to meet the man himself.

We were relying on hope since Mr Gulen had been unwell — and bed-ridden. It was Mr Kilic who was to break the bad news: “He can’t wake up to see you. He is very sick.”

The previous day, the Journalists and Writers Foundation, which has its roots in Turkey, had organised a side conference as part of the United Nations General Assembly.

One of the speakers was Abdulhamit Bilici, the former Editor-in-Chief of Zaman Daily which was taken over by the Turkish military during a crackdown on journalists on March 4, 2016.

MEDIA

We later sat together during a boat-trip on the Hudson River and he recounted his story of being tear-gassed out of Turkey’s then leading mass circulation daily because it was associated with radicals.

“The police entered our offices and literary kicked everyone out as they took control of the newsroom,” he said. “We had to flee.”

He escaped to the US before he was thrown into prison.

It is this Turkish government’s diplomatic push to have countries hosting Gulen-linked schools to close them, to retaliate his fallout with Mr Gulen that is bringing the Turkish politics to the more than 100 countries that host them.