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Viewing cable 09ANKARA1722, GULEN - TURKEY'S INVISIBLE MAN CASTS LONG SHADOW

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09ANKARA1722 2009-12-04 11:11 2011-03-17 15:00 CONFIDENTIAL Embassy Ankara
Appears in these articles:
http://www.taraf.com.tr/haber/abd-belgelerinde-fethullah-gulen.htm
VZCZCXRO7572
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RUEHNP RUEHROV RUEHSL RUEHSR
DE RUEHAK #1722/01 3381111
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 041111Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1371
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL PRIORITY 6598
RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC//USDP:PDUSDP/ISA:EUR/ISA:NESA// PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEUITH/ODC ANKARA TU PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC//J-3/J-5// PRIORITY
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/39ABG INCIRLIK AB TU PRIORITY
RUEPGAB/MNF-I C2X BAGHDAD IZ PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 001722 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE AND NEA/I 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/03/2019 
TAGS: PREL PTER PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: GULEN - TURKEY'S INVISIBLE MAN CASTS LONG SHADOW 
 
REF: A. ANKARA 1029 
     B. ANKARA 834 
 
Classified By: Ambassador James Jeffrey, for reasons 1.4(b),(d) 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY: Fethullah Gulen remains a political 
phenomenon in Turkey.  Although "exiled" in Pennsylvania for 
the past decade, Gulen's impact continues to expand, aided by 
legions of loyalist supporters and a network of elite 
schools.  The Gulen Movement's purported goals focus on 
interfaith dialogue and tolerance, but in the current 
AKP-secularists schism, many Turks believe Gulen has a deeper 
and possibly insidious political agenda, and even some 
Islamist groups criticize Gulen's lack of transparency, which 
they say creates doubts about his motives.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (SBU) Gulen was born between 1938-1942 (varying dates have 
been given), and initially served as an imam and as an 
employee of Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs 
(Diyanet).  He established his own movement in the 1970s 
based on the teachings of Said Nursi, an Islamic thinker of 
Kurdish origin, whose followers are called Nurcus.  Gulen 
then broke away from the Nursi framework.  Gulen's own 
philosophy emphasizes the role of science in Islam.  He 
supports interfaith dialogue and condemns terrorism.  In the 
past two decades, Gulen has focused primarily on education, 
not only in Turkey but around the world.  His schools have 
earned a reputation particularly in Central and South Asia 
for academic excellence and the advocacy of moderate Islamic 
views. 
 
Indicted, Then Acquitted 
------------------------ 
 
3. (SBU) Gulen has been living in the U.S. since 1999 when he 
went there ostensibly for health treatments (a heart 
condition and diabetes).  At the same time, however, he faced 
charges in Turkey of plotting to overthrow the state.  The 
charges were based on a 1986 sermon where Gulen is heard 
declaring that "our friends, who have positions in 
legislative and administrative bodies, should learn its 
details and be vigilant all the time so they can transform it 
and be more fruitful on behalf of Islam in order to carry out 
a nationwide restoration."  This indictment gave his travel 
to the U.S. the appearance of his being a fugitive from the 
Turkish judicial system.  A Turkish Court acquitted him of 
all charges in 2006.  That acquittal was appealed but the 
acquittal was upheld in 2008. 
 
4. (SBU) In the meantime, Gulen had applied for Permanent 
Residence status in the U.S.  Immigration officials initially 
rejected Gulen's application to be classified as "an alien of 
extraordinary ability," but a Federal Court ruled in late 
2008 that this rejection had been improper.  Gulen now holds 
a Green Card, and lives in a secluded compound in 
Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. 
 
5. (SBU) The core of the Fethullah Gulen Movement is his 
network of schools, which extend from South Africa to the 
United States.  The schools emphasize high academic 
achievement, and they openly recruit and provide scholarships 
to the brightest students from poor and working class 
families.  Gulenist schools in Turkey routinely produce 
graduates who score in the upper one percent of the annual 
university entrance exam.  These top graduates often become 
teachers themselves.  The Gulenist doctrine, with its 
conservative and religiously observant undercurrent, has met 
fierce hostility in regimes such as Russia, which expelled 
the Gulenists en masse in the 1990s. 
 
6. (C) But it is within Turkey that the movement has its 
roots, its largest following, and its greatest controversies. 
 The Gulen Movement includes not only educational 
institutions, including the famous Samanyolu ("Milky Way") 
school in Ankara and Fatih University, but also the 
 
ANKARA 00001722  002 OF 003 
 
 
Journalists and Writers Foundation, various businesses, and 
media outlets such as "Zaman," "Today's Zaman" (English 
language), "Samanyolu TV," and "Aksiyon Weekly."  Gulenists 
also reportedly dominate the Turkish National Police, where 
they serve as the vangard for the Ergenekon investigation -- 
an extensive  probe into an alleged vast underground network 
that is accused of attempting to encourage a military coup in 
2004.  The investigation has swept up many secular opponents 
of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), including 
Turkish military figures, which has prompted accusations that 
the Gulenists have as their ultimate goal the undermining of 
all institutions which disapprove of Turkey becoming more 
visibly Islamist. (COMMENT: The assertion that the TNP is 
controlled by Gulenists is impossible to confirm but we have 
found no one who disputes it, and we have heard accounts that 
TNP applicants who stay at Gulenist pensions are provided the 
answers in advance to the TNP entrance exam.  END COMMENT) 
 
Championing the Ergenekon Probe 
------------------------------- 
 
7. (C) Gulenist newspapers such as "Zaman" relentlessly 
question the validity of the Ataturk legacy and argue that as 
an EU aspirant country, Turkey must ensure the diminished 
voice of the Turkish military in political issues.  These 
papers champion the Ergenekon investigation and continually 
stress that the traditional dominance of the Turkish military 
has been a negative factor in Turkey's history.  Not 
surprisingly, contacts close to the the Turkish General Staff 
openly loathe Gulen, and contend that he and his legions of 
supporters are embarked on a ruthless quest not only to 
undermine the Turkish military but to transform Turkey into 
an Islamic republic similar to Iran. 
 
8. (C) Even among some Islamist organizations, the Fethullah 
Gulen Movement seems to have a murky reputation.  The former 
head of the City Women's Platform, Hidayet Tuksal, told us 
that her group regards Gulen positively, because he 
disapproves of the use of violence, but that Gulen's lack of 
transparency creates doubt about his motives and leads to 
suspicions about what lies ahead -- even within the 
communities where Gulen is most active.  Gulen's purported 
main goal is to bolster interfaith dialogue and tolerance, 
but the notion is widespread among many circles in Turkey 
that his agenda is deeper and more insidious. 
 
9. (C) The Gulen movement has been described as a modernized 
version of Sunni Hanafi Islam.  It shares this orientation 
with "Milli Gorus," the grouping associated with former PM 
Necmettin Erbakan, but the two movements are otherwise 
distinct: "Milli Gorus" is Turkey-centric; the Gulen Movement 
has a broader scope and is more comfortable with the concept 
of justifying the means for the end, such as discarding the 
headscarf when necessary.  Still, there is some convergence: 
many of the founders of AKP came from "Milli Gorus," but many 
officials within AKP are known to be close to the Gulen 
movement. 
 
10. (C) Most discussions in Turkey which touch on Gulen tend 
to be somewhat delicate and deliberately artful.  Our 
interlocutors often seem reluctant to express their views, 
seemingly uncertain if it will rebound on them to their 
detriment.  In addition, the political context for 
conversations about Gulen is complicated because President 
Gul is himself seen by almost all of our contacts as a 
Gulenist, while Prime Minister Erdogan is not.  Indeed, some 
of our contacts have argued that Erdogan is so firmly outside 
the Gulen camp that Gulen loyalists view him as a liability. 
At the same time, the Republican People's Party and other AKP 
opponents of the ruling Justice and Development Party are 
quick to accuse the U.S. of working covertly to prop up 
Gulen, allegedly to weaken Turkey's secular foundation to 
produce a "model" moderate Islamic nation.  This accusation 
relies on the premise that Gulen was given refuge in the 
U.S., and ultimately permanent resident status, despite 
 
ANKARA 00001722  003 OF 003 
 
 
facing indictment in Turkey for illegal anti-secularist 
activities. 
 
11. (C) Gulen has his share of non-Islamic supporters, which 
includes the Eucumenical Patriarch in Istanbul.  In a recent 
conversation with the Ambassador, the Patriarch reported that 
he had visited Gulen during his last trip to the United 
States and had spent more than an hour together in a 
one-on-one discussion.  He planned to see Gulen again on his 
recent visit to New York.  The Patriarch told the Ambassador 
he had been "very impressed" with Gulen and commented on the 
quality of Gulen schools, including a Gulenist University in 
Kazakhstan named for Suleyman Demirel. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
12. (C) Given the current AKP-secularist schism in Turkey 
today, it should not be surprising that any Islamist movement 
in Turkey would choose to be circumspect about its 
intentions.  Unfortunately, this simply feeds the reflexive 
tendency in Turkish society for conspiracy theories, and 
magnifies suspicions about the Gulen movement itself.  While 
the purported Gulen goals of interfaith dialogue and 
tolerance are beyond reproach, we see aspects of concern in 
the allegations that the USG is somehow behind the Gulen 
movement.  Accordingly, we would recommend the following 
standard press guidance: 
 
Q: 
 
Why is the U.S. sheltering Fethullah Gulen and doesn't this 
mean that the US is promoting a non-secular Turkey? 
 
A: 
 
-- The U.S. is not "sheltering" Mr. Gulen and his presence in 
the U.S. is not based on any political decision. 
 
-- Mr. Gulen applied for, and received, permanent residence 
in the U.S. after a lengthy process which ended in 2008 when 
a Federal Court ruled that he deserved to be viewed as an 
"alien of extraordinary ability" based on his extensive 
writings and his leadership of a worldwide religious 
organization. 
 
-- As a Green Card holder, Mr. Gulen is entitled to all the 
privileges which that status entails.  His presence in the 
U.S. should not be viewed as a reflection of US policy toward 
Turkey. 
 
JEFFREY