One of the frequently discussed issues in contemporary Turkey is the political influence of “The Gulen Movement,” or the religious network inspired by the teachings of Fethullah Gulen, Turkish Muslim scholar and preacher who has been living in Pennsylvania since 1998. While speculation about the movement includes far-fetched conspiracy theories — such as that Gulen is a “CIA agent” or “crypto Christian” — almost all observers agree that the movement needs to be taken as a serious political force in Turkish affairs.
More recently, many have wondered where exactly the movement stands with regard to a key issue in Turkish politics: The “peace process” between the state and the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, an armed and outlawed group considered as a terrorist organization by not only the Turkish government but also most of its Western allies. The AKP (Justice and Development Party) government that initiated this controversial process with the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, is in need of political and moral support, and whether it gets this from the Gulen Movement, in addition to the AKP’s loyal conservative supporters and peacenik liberals, is really important.
Before delving into the answer, perhaps some background information might also help: Comparing the AKP and the Gulen Movement can be in fact a bit misleading, because one is a political party, the other is a religiously-inspired civil community. Moreover, the voters of the AKP (literally half of Turkish society) most certainly include many, if not most, followers of Fethullah Gulen. In fact, the movement should be considered as the most powerful (and arguably most modernized) of Turkeys’ numerous religious communities, which together make up “the religious conservatives” whose natural political choice is lately the AKP.
Yet, it has also been proven that the Gulen Movement, which has often been a strong ally of the AKP leadership in the past decade, has taken different positions on various issues. To make a broad generalization, the movement has been more dovish to the West and Israel, but more hawkish against the “Turkish deep state” and the PKK. The latter stance has been also combined with the allegations that the Gulen Movement has a strong presence within Turkey’s police forces.
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