October 9, 2017
By Juan Cole
The US and Turkey (click here) have ceased processing non-immigrant visas for one another’s citizens. That’s right. If you’re an American and were planning to visit Istanbul this fall, unpack your bags.
In a world of abnormal goings-on, this one is really weird.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has used the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016, as a pretext for moving his country away from democracy and toward an illiberal authoritarianism. He has closed universities and newspapers, jailed journalists, dissidents and academics, and fired 150,000 people from government jobs. The Turkish government maintains that the coup was led by military officers from the Hizmet movement of Fethullah Gulen, a rightwing religious leader who fled Turkey in the late 1990s and lives in Pennsylvania. Only a fraction of those persons targeted, however, have been Gulencis (200,000 people did not act as coup plotters).
Members of the Turkish cabinet have openly charged Barack Obama with having been behind the coup, which is ridiculous. A billionaire crony of Erdogan attempted to buy influence with Trump by hiring the security firm of Michael Flynn, Trump’s first National Security Adviser. Flynn allegedly thought seriously about kidnapping the elderly Gulen and rendering him back to Turkey for trial. As it happened, Flynn was fired for not disclosing the extent of his foreign emoluments....
Effecting the sovereignty of any country to benefit a foreign power's hold and provide wealth at the same time is a double crime of treason and sedition.
Trump openly threatened NATO. It would seem Turkey took him seriously. He really believes himself an imperial president of the USA that can dissolve treaties and alliances without an action by Congress. When will the Congress act to remove Trump from his seat of power?
18 December 2013
Supporters regard the Hizmet movement (click here) inspired by US-based Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen as the benign, modern face of Islam, but critics question its motives.
The influence of the movement has been in the spotlight again in Mr Gulen's home country, where a feud between his followers and other members of the political class has been blown into the open by a series of arrests.
Ill-feeling is said to have grown since the Turkish government moved to close down a network of private schools run by Hizmet....
