After the July 15 attempted coup in Turkey, the Gulen movement became an important item on the global agenda. The movement has been active in Turkey for 40 years and operates in 130 countries employing hundreds of thousands of people in the fields of education, health and trade with annual revenue exceeding $50 billion.

Most of the international media insist in depicting the Gulen network as an Islamic civil society organization that defends moderate Islam, advocates democratic values and that is open to dialogue with other currents, although about 250 security personnel and civilians were killed defending democracy on July 15.

The resentment felt abroad against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan must have a role in this persistent misreading of the developments. This anger and the concern that Erdogan’s authoritarian tendencies will be institutionalized in Turkey after July 15 no doubt influences the view of the Western media about the Gulen movement.

In Turkey, following the December 2013 corruption operations and the government’s sustained and well-organized media counterattacks, the public had begun to identify the Gulen movement as a "parallel state" inclined to terror. The vital question now asked is whether Gulenists are behind the July 15 coup attempt.