Turkey’s Fierce Battle on the Religious Right

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/turkeys-battle-religious.html

Turkey’s Fierce Battle on the Religious Right
By Juan Cole | Jan. 14, 2014
(By Ayşe Soysal)

… What is happening in Turkey now doesn’t feel like just a simple political disagreement, or even a war-game. It’s an all-out war, whose opening gambits have been politically damaging to both sides — the [Justice and Development Party or] AKP-led government and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan and the secretive Islamic Gülen Movement (what some have called a pan-Turkish cultural movement) led by Fethullah Gülen.

Events over December and into January have demonstrated an escalation in the level of hostility between the government and the Movement. As a power struggle has ensued between these allies-turned-adversaries, Erdoğan has publicly declared that he will root out the ‘parallel state’ of Gülen adherents that he says have taken over the police force and the judiciary. So far it appears that the damage done by the Gülen Movement to Turkey’s government in this fight is far greater than the damage done to the Movement. That said, judging from recent opinion polls and pro-Erdogan rallies this past weekend, perhaps it is too soon to judge, and the equation may revert…

Earlier Warning Signs

Several years ago Erdoğan issued a public invitation to Fethullah Gülen asking him to terminate his exile and return to Turkey, as the political situation in the country had ‘normalized;’ promising Gülen that he was in no danger of being prosecuted. He didn’t take Erdogan up on his offer. I wonder now at Gülen’s motives for not returning.

What were some other warning signs of this coming power struggle? Outsiders like me probably missed some of the earlier signs. These are the ones that registered with me: