Erdoğan’s purge of ex-allies blamed for failed coup bid has its critics, but many Turks remember the ruthless rise of the cleric’s followers

In 2008, his last year of military high school in the western city of Bursa, Mehmet Koç noticed that things were changing in the Turkish army. The school had just been handed over from the army to the air force, and a new group of commanders took over the education of the cadets.



What Koç was seeing was the arrival of the Gülenists, the movement around US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, who the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a former ally, accuses of being behind last month’s coup attempt. Gülen and his followers have denied all involvement.

Western governments and human rights groups have expressed grave concern over the tens of thousands with alleged ties to the network who have since been detained or dismissed from their jobs, arguing that the investigation has already turned into a witch-hunt. But many in Turkey are frustrated by the perceived reluctance in the west to take the Gülen network seriously – for Turks such as Koç, the movement’s rise meant physical abuse, debt and a thwarted military career.

“I had been a good student and got along well with the teachers,” Koç said. “But I soon noticed that these new commanders had their own way of doing things, a different hierarchy. They separated students into favourites and those they wanted to get rid of, screening them for certain profiles.”

The west is supporting terrorism against Turkey, claims Erdoğan Read more

Koç’s final school year under the new leadership was difficult, but things got much worse after he entered the military academy in Ankara in 2009. “They put us ‘unwanted’ students into so-called ‘shock teams’ of 10 cadets each,” he recalled, adding that he had been categorised as Kemalist – a supporter of the secular ideology of modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk – because of a book he had borrowed from the school library while in high school.



“They tortured us. We were deprived of sleep, of food, of water. We had to crawl everywhere, even on asphalt. My skin was raw and bleeding constantly. They humiliated us. They made us jump into rubbish bins with our mouths open, told us that we were no better than garbage and not worthy of becoming officers in the Turkish army. They did everything they could to make us leave to make room for their own students.”

In Turkey it had long been assumed that Gülen’s network, encouraged by the Justice and Development party (AKP), with whom it shared a background in Turkish Islamist movements, had infiltrated the judiciary and the security apparatus but those who dared to speak up were swiftly punished. For much of the period, Erdoğan and Gülen were still allies and journalists went to jail for reporting on the issue.

The alliance between Erdoğan and Gülen started to sour in 2012, but the president finally declared war on the cleric following the eruption of a corruption scandal in 2013 that implicated the AKP government, Erdoğan’s closest associates and his family. Erdoğan, then the prime minister, blames Gülen for the allegations of sleaze.

Fethullah Gülen's lawyers fear attacks on his life amid calls for return to Turkey Read more

“The Gülenists did an excellent job at convincing the west of their good intentions. They have an immense international network, are well-spoken and well-educated,” said investigative journalist İsmail Saymaz. “For 10 years we have suffered at the hands of a criminal gang that presented itself to the outside world as a movement for peace and interfaith dialogue, while ruthlessly moving against its opponents inside Turkey.”

The cleric’s formidable organisation, money and influence, combined with the AKP’s electoral success, allowed the two groups to rise together and displace Turkey’s secular establishment in many areas of national life.

Some analysts stress that a large number of Gülen supporters in Turkey were not aware of the allegations surrounding the network, and instead believed that Gülen promoted only interfaith dialogue, education, and charity – projects the network successfully organised in private schools and institutions worldwide.

“The secular Kemalists were the first to be hit by the Gülen network, because they occupied the public offices that the Gülenists wanted,” Saymaz said. “When their victims talked and wrote about this, they were treated like they were crazy or liars.

“Kemalists, leftists and Kurds were detained. They all faced trials on completely trumped up charges based on made-up evidence. The AKP was only the last group to be targeted by the Gülenists, after they fell out.”

Of the 470 cadets who entered the prestigious Ankara military academy with Koç, only 250 were left at the end of the 42-day orientation period. Koç left on day 20.

It was not just a matter of a ruined career. For cadets, dropping out of the free military education without going on to serve in the armed forces meant paying substantial fines to the state. “My father, a worker, had to sell his car. He paid back 56,000 Turkish lira (£14,500) in instalments over time, it was very difficult for us,” said Koç. “Some families were ruined. Some fell out with their children over leaving them with such a burden of debt.”



What's the mood in Turkey a month on from the failed coup? Read more

Koç underlined that the government had long turned a blind eye to the growing Gülenist influence inside the Turkish army. The general chief of staff ignored the expelled students’ pleas.

Speaking as the board member of the Judges’s Union, Tamer Akgökçe, a criminal judge of 30 years, expressed dismay over the government’s self-appointed role as the victim.

“The Gülenists took over the judiciary with the aid of the AKP government. The rule of law is in tatters, they did a lot of harm. Judges and prosecutors were dismissed, moved to far-away posts. Careers were destroyed. With the help of the Gülenists inside the judiciary, the AKP passed all the laws they wanted and needed. They got rid of opponents. But the current purges are against all legal rules and principles,” he said.

“And we know for a fact that many of the judges and prosecutors in pretrial detention are neither Gülenists nor coup plotters. We are now witnessing the struggle between two groups who both crush the rule of law underfoot. One bad thing will replace another.”