A Guy Who Lives in Pennsylvania May Be Taking Down the Entire Turkish Government.

• Author: Cotter, Michael W.
• Position: Fethullah Gulen

A GUY WHO LIVES IN PENNSYLVANIA MAY BE TAKING DOWN THE ENTIRE TURKISH GOVERNMENT

By Suzy Hansen, a writer living in Istanbul

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116044/fethullah-gulen-turkish-prime-minister-erdogans-biggest-rival

Turkey has been much in the news recently as prosecutors in that country have brought corruption charges against a number of people close to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The government in turn maintains that the investigation was instigated by followers of a reclusive Turkish figure, Fethullah Gulen, and has fired a number of police officers and prosecutors who, it claims, had been infiltrated into those positions by Gulen. News media in the U.S., however, have provided little information about Gulen or his movement beyond noting that he lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.

This article, which originally appeared in the New Republic in December 2010, was recently reprinted by the magazine because of its relevance to the current imbroglio. The author has written extensively for a variety of newspapers and magazines, primarily but not exclusively on Turkish issues. Given the article's age, it does not shed light on the recent events. In fact, the article suggests that an alliance formed between Erdogan and Gulen when the former began his rise to power, and notes that some Turks believe Gulen's followers were involved in the government's arrest and prosecution of senior military officials in recent years.

The article's primary value lies in the extensive, and very interesting, background it provides on Gulen and his movement. Gulen himself was trained as a Muslim cleric and became a follower of Said...