Erdogan goes after Morocco’s Gulenists
Several Turks affiliated with the Gulen movement have been arrested in Morocco, raising questions about the kingdom’s independence in its decisions.
Morocco has joined the list of countries where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pursuing the followers and sympathizers of the Hizmet (Service) movement. Like many countries, Morocco has succumbed to Ankara’s pressure and arrested individuals affiliated with the movement that Fethullah Gulen established in 1970.
In January, the Moroccan government announced it was closing several schools that Turkish contractors affiliated with the Hizmet movement had run in the country since 1994. The shutdown was in response to official Turkish orders that classify the group as “terrorist” and accuse it of being implicated in the failed coup attempt of July 2016.
