A rough political row is simmering in Turkey. The sparring sides, however, are not two political parties as it would have been in a normal democracy. Because Turkey remains an abnormal democracy — one of the sides is a political party, while the other a religious community. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has locked horns with the Hizmet Movement — or “the Community” as it is widely called in Turkey — of Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen. A fierce propaganda war is under way, especially on social networks. The government’s plan to close down private tutoring halls, the spark that ignited the current row, is just a smoke screen. The real struggle is about who will rule the state. 

Let’s briefly review the chronology of the conflict. 

On Feb. 7, 2012, Istanbul special-authority prosecutor Sadrettin Sarikaya issued summonses for National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Chief Hakan Fidan, his predecessor Emre Taner and MIT’s former Deputy Chief Afet Gunes, to question them in a probe into the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK). The move marked the onset of the biggest ever crisis between the AKP and the Gulen community. 

The crisis escalated when it emerged the prosecutor planned to question the MIT officials over secret talks held in Oslo between MIT and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The prosecutor would have probably arrested Fidan had the government not intervened. Sarikaya was removed from the probe and laws were amended to shield the MIT officials.