As the coup attempt unfolded on Friday night, a lawyer for the Turkish government, Robert Amsterdam, said there were “indications of direct involvement” of the Gülenists, adding that he and his firm had “attempted repeatedly to warn the US government of the threat posed” by Gülen and his movement. Amsterdam cited Turkish intelligence sources in claiming that “there are signs that Gülen is working closely with certain members of military leadership against the elected civilian government”.
The Alliance for Shared Values, the US arm of Gülen’s Hizmet movement, was quick to deny any involvement in the coup, calling such claims “highly irresponsible” and insisting that the group did not support the military intervention.
“Events on the ground are moving quickly and it would be irresponsible for us to speculate on them,” the group said in a statement. “We remain concerned about the safety and security of Turkish citizens and those in Turkey right now.
“For more than 40 years, Fethullah Gülen and Hizmet participants have advocated for, and demonstrated their commitment to, peace and democracy.
“We have consistently denounced military interventions in domestic politics. These are core values of Hizmet participants. We condemn any military intervention in domestic politics of Turkey.”
So what is the truth? Critics point to a video that emerged in 1999 in which Gülen seemed to suggest that his followers should infiltrate mainstream institutions.
“You must move within the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centres … You must wait until such time as you have got all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institution in Turkey.”
Gülen claimed, though, that the recording had been altered.
Speaking to France 24 in the midst of the 2013 tensions between Erdoğan and Gülen, Dorothée Schmid, a Turkey analyst at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), summed up the contradictions in the feud.
“Turkish democracy is in danger if we’re counting on a movement without any transparency or political legitimacy, when it comes to contesting the authoritarian tendencies of the power in place,” said Schmid.
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Originally Posted by RonPaulIsGreat
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