The conflict between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and penetration of the hierarchical judiciary by the US-based Gulen movement (Cemaat) is escalating by the day. It would be misleading to see this clash as solely between the government and the Cemaat. The decisions at the last meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) indicated that the entire Turkish state was determined to purge the state of Gulenists. It is no longer a Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan versus Gulen clash, but the Turkish state versus Gulenists.

In that critical meeting of the NSC, decisions were taken on measures to cleanse the state from the “parallel body” built by the Gulenists. In the meeting chaired by President Abdullah Gul the outcome was a firm decision for all-out combat against efforts for a parallel state. The strategy for the struggle will have three main prongs:

• Fighting penetration of state organs.
• The Cemaat’s contacts with foreign organizations and intelligence services.
• The Cemaat's domination of the private sector through intimidation.

So what transpired in that crucial NSC meeting? I spoke on background with senior participants: Hakan Fidan, head of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), gave a comprehensive brief on the Gulenists' structuring within the state and of mass wiretapping operations that even included the encrypted phones of Gul, Erdogan and other senior officials and how these were conveyed abroad. Hakan said the trucks chartered by MIT were searched to damage Turkey’s international standing and enhance suspicions of cooperation with terror. He gave detailed information on parallel operations within the state, on clusters formed in critical institutions and purging of civil servants who refused to submit to the Cemaat by using judicial powers.

The emphasis was on the threat to national security posed by this parallel body as indicated in the communique issued after the NSC meeting that said: “All penetration efforts and activities that threaten the peace of our people and national security were discussed.”