You may be right on all counts, but what puzzles and concerns me, admittedly an ill-informed American observer (but with Turkish friends), is why anyone who values secularism and freedom would not side with the Gulenists if taking sides may likely become necessary. (Yes, it's fun for now to sit back and just watch Erdogan and Gulen maul and rip each other up in their current power struggle.) My point was simply that if the military or any other secular minded person who disdains political Islam and the repression it invariably brings with it in governance has to choose whom to back in this fight, the Gulenists seem to me to be the lesser of two evils. Yes, it would be nice for those of us who distrust and detest both sides to sit back and watch them destroy each other. But that rarely happens in real life. Instead, one side usually will eventually prevail and will likely emerge from that fight battle scarred more intolerant and repressive than ever before. Ask yourself this: If Erdogan and the AKP destroy or cow into silence the Gulenists, what do you think they will do to CHP and the secularist intelligentsia in Turkey afterwards? Would it not be wiser politically and otherwise for all those who fear Erdogan and his Islamists the most to join forces temporarily with the Gulenists now, before they themselves are eliminated or neutralized? I realize that many will need to hold their nostrils closed and to act very circumspectly whenever dealing with the Gulenists as allies, but one should not allow their political stench or past untrustworthiness to blind one to the need on occasion to choose the lesser of two evils in order to survive.
So it seems all corruption and autocracy hating Turks owe a huge debt of gratitude to Gulen and the Gulenists, even if their motives are impure. Erdogan's ill-advised decision to shut down Gulen's schools has had the effect of poking a stick into a nest of hornets. So far only some cronies and his son have been stung, but none fatally. The question remains how can Erdogan silence an entire nest of Gulenists, who call themselves collectively a "movement" (Hizmet), and who have positioned themselves within every sector of power and influence in Turkey? Erdogan may currently control the levers of power in Turkey, but will his orders be followed if he unleashes the police, military, and/or judiciary on the Gulenists? I will wager that if tries to do that, the emasculated military (thanks mainly and ironically to the sham prosecutions by Gulenist police and judiciary) will regain its courage and coup-making powers to put an end to the Erdogan government. Why, one might reasonably ask, would the military intervene to stop Erdogan's persecution of the Gulenists in light of the Gulenists' persecution of military officers in the Ergenekon and Slegehammer cases? Because, strangely enough, Gulenist teachings are not as opposed and antithetical to the Turkish military's secularist traditions and proclivities as are Erdogan's and the AKP's political Islamism and conservatism. In other words, the military and other secularists have more to fear from Erdogan and his AKP supporters than from Gulen and his followers.
You may be right on all counts, but what puzzles and concerns me, admittedly an ill-informed American observer (but with Turkish friends), is why anyone who values secularism and freedom would not side with the Gulenists if taking sides may likely become necessary. (Yes, it's fun for now to sit back and just watch Erdogan and Gulen maul and rip each other up in their current power struggle.) My point was simply that if the military or any other secular minded person who disdains political Islam and the repression it invariably brings with it in governance has to choose whom to back in this fight, the Gulenists seem to me to be the lesser of two evils. Yes, it would be nice for those of us who distrust and detest both sides to sit back and watch them destroy each other. But that rarely happens in real life. Instead, one side usually will eventually prevail and will likely emerge from that fight battle scarred more intolerant and repressive than ever before. Ask yourself this: If Erdogan and the AKP destroy or cow into silence the Gulenists, what do you think they will do to CHP and the secularist intelligentsia in Turkey afterwards? Would it not be wiser politically and otherwise for all those who fear Erdogan and his Islamists the most to join forces temporarily with the Gulenists now, before they themselves are eliminated or neutralized? I realize that many will need to hold their nostrils closed and to act very circumspectly whenever dealing with the Gulenists as allies, but one should not allow their political stench or past untrustworthiness to blind one to the need on occasion to choose the lesser of two evils in order to survive.
So it seems all corruption and autocracy hating Turks owe a huge debt of gratitude to Gulen and the Gulenists, even if their motives are impure. Erdogan's ill-advised decision to shut down Gulen's schools has had the effect of poking a stick into a nest of hornets. So far only some cronies and his son have been stung, but none fatally. The question remains how can Erdogan silence an entire nest of Gulenists, who call themselves collectively a "movement" (Hizmet), and who have positioned themselves within every sector of power and influence in Turkey? Erdogan may currently control the levers of power in Turkey, but will his orders be followed if he unleashes the police, military, and/or judiciary on the Gulenists? I will wager that if tries to do that, the emasculated military (thanks mainly and ironically to the sham prosecutions by Gulenist police and judiciary) will regain its courage and coup-making powers to put an end to the Erdogan government. Why, one might reasonably ask, would the military intervene to stop Erdogan's persecution of the Gulenists in light of the Gulenists' persecution of military officers in the Ergenekon and Slegehammer cases? Because, strangely enough, Gulenist teachings are not as opposed and antithetical to the Turkish military's secularist traditions and proclivities as are Erdogan's and the AKP's political Islamism and conservatism. In other words, the military and other secularists have more to fear from Erdogan and his AKP supporters than from Gulen and his followers.