On July 15th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against the Turkish people. The Turkish people have known military coups, and they have known the casualties of freedom, but never has the Parliament been bombed, fighter jets flown low over Turkish cities to intimidate its citizens, and never before have hundreds of people been killed. The night fell on a different Turkey where freedom itself was under attack. The Turkish people have many questions. They are asking who is behind the failed coup in their country and who killed more than 245 innocents. All the evidence that the Turkish government has gathered points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as the Fethullah Gulen movement. They are the same murderers indicted for their involvement in many other criminal acts in Turkey, and the ones who have had the secular military as well as Kurds imprisoned.Gulen is a terrorist; what the mafia is to crime, his organization is to terrorism. But his goal is remaking the world and imposing his cultic beliefs on people around the world. The Gulenist cult movement perverts the teaching of Islam to fit his way of Islam. According to the Turkish government, Gulen’s directive commanded his infiltrators to kill President Erdogan and those closely associated with him. This group and its leader, a imam named Fethullah Gulen who resides in Pennsylvania in the US, are linked to many other organizations around the world, including some in the Philippines. There are thousands of these groups in more than 163 countries. They opened schools, universities, NGOs, business establishments, sport clubs, media outlets that they use to disseminate his cult ideology. The followers are sent back to their home countries or sent to hide in foreign countries around the globe to plot evil and destruction, if necessary to achieve his end.
The leadership of the Fethullah terror organization has a great influence in the Obama administration and has ties with supporters of the Obama administration. In the United States, we see the Fethullah Gulen movement’s vision for the free world. Within the 10 to 16 years he opened charters schools, NGOs, businesses, and media centers in all 50 American states. By bribing perhaps hundreds of American politicians with a free trip to Turkey, he essentially paid many western politicians and academics to write and publish positive reports about his group. Those who disagreed with him and his way of Islam have been sued or falsely imprisoned.
Gulen’s way of Islam can be practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be jailed in Turkey if he insults Gulen or does not agree with the movement. The people of Turkey have respected Americans in the past, but the Turkish government is making the following demands regarding Gulen: deliver all the leaders of the Gulen movement who are hiding in the US to the Turkish authorities. America should permanently close down all the Gulen affiliated charters schools, NGO’s, institutions, and businesses, and it should hand over Gulen to the Turkish authorities to face justice. This case parallels the United States’ ultimatum to the Taliban government, either hand over the leader of the Al-Qaida terrorist group or share the consequences. America did not ask for evidence about whether Osama bin Ladin killed thousands of Americans or not; instead, the American government made it clear that after the event of 9/11, our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them is also our enemy.
If the Obama administration does not extradite the leader of this terror organization who was behind the failed coup on July 25th, 2016, during which the terrorists killed more than 245 civilians including children and bombed the Turkish capital, Americans will suffer. Gulen wanted to overthrow the existing government in Turkey especially President Erdogan and the AK party since Gulen’s followers stand against Erdogan and his AKP because the President stands in their way. The world’s public should not be deceived by Gulen’s fabrications, because he is lying when he tells the international community that his devotees were not involved in the coup, since we have seen their kind of clandestine operations before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 21st century in sacrificing human life to serve their cultic vision and by abandoning every value except the will to power. They follow in the path of fascism, the “us versus them” mentality, and totalitarianism. Because of the strength of their desire for power, they will follow that path all the way to where it ends.
Now the Turkish people are asking how will they fight with this cult. The Turkish government is directing every resource at its command, every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law, and every financial influence to disrupt and to defeat Gulen’s terror organization. The Turkish nation has been put on notice: they are not immune from attack. The Turkish people, however, have gone to the streets to protect democracy. But the only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to halt it, eliminate it, and destroy it where it grows. This is not just Turkey’s fight because what is at stake is not just Turkish democracy and freedom. This is the fight of all who believe in progress, pluralism, tolerance, freedom, and democracy.
With the event of July 15th, the entire world has seen for itself that the Turkish people defended democracy, not theocracy or a military junta. The citizens were awakened to the dangers of a religion cult and have been called on to defend democracy. The Turks’ grief has turned to anger and their anger to resolution. Whether they bring their enemies to justice, or bring the justice to their enemies, Fethullah Gulen will fall because the Turkish nation wants justice to be done. Therefore, the Obama administration must hand over Gulen and permanently close down all his activities. It is shameful for the leader of the world to harbor the leader of a terrorist group, while that nation tries to persuade the world to join them in the war to eliminate terror.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to The Kurdistan Tribune, and Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
