President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a lecture at Marmara University on Oct. 13, surprised the audience when he said, “When we convene the National Security Council [MGK] at the end of the month, my agenda will be to ensure that the National Security Policy Document addresses whatever threat there is against our country.” Erdogan’s remarks were interpreted to mean that the US-based Gulenist movement, which is accused of penetrating the state mechanism to set up a “parallel structure,” might be added to the list of “national security threats against Turkey.”
This is the first time Erdogan revealed that he would be taking his struggle with the Gulenists to a new level. Erdogan, as the commander-in-chief and the chairman of the MGK, appears determined to include the Gulenist movement as an “internal threat” in the National Security Policy Document, popularly known as “the Red Book” in Turkey.
