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:
