Erdogan gains upper hand

Istanbul, July 24

Since a failed coup on July 15, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) founded by President Tayyip Erdogan has gained the upper hand in its battle with clandestine networks in the military, judiciary and bureaucracy loyal to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

This fight to the bitter end has alarmed the West and unsettled the country of 80 million, which borders the chaos in Iraq and Syria and is a Western ally against Islamic State.

Erdogan accuses Gulen of masterminding the attempted coup by a faction within the military and has rounded up more than 60,000 people in an operation which he hopes will cleanse Turkey of what he calls the Gulenist ‘virus’.

The purges go beyond the more than 100 generals and 6,000 soldiers held, or the nearly 3,000 judges detained. They already encompass 21,000 teachers and much of the academic community, and new targets in a media already hit by years of firings and fines, jailings and closures.

“They are traitors,” Erdogan told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. He described Gulen’s network as “like a cancer” and said he would treat them like a “separatist terrorist organisation” and root them out, wherever they may be.

Gulen, 75, denies plotting against the state and suggested the day after the abortive coup that it may have been staged to justify a crackdown on his followers.

Gulen, a Muslim imam self-exiled in Pennsylvania since 1999, has built a franchise of schools in Turkey and around the world, promoting the importance of education, scientific progress, religious coexistence and fighting poverty.

After their ascent to power, Erdogan and the AKP became dependent on the Gulenists in their common fight against the army.  The struggle between the former allies started in late 2011.

Erdogan had been re-elected that summer for a third term as PM, making no secret of his presidential ambitions. His posters emphasised power until 2023, the centenary of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's founding of the modern republic. — Reuters