Trojan Horse for Asia Minor: how modern empires are built
In December last year, 22 was celebrated since the date when Turkey became a candidate for EU membership. For 22, the expectations of the country on the eve of the EU went through all stages of unhappy love - including enthusiastic "just about", harmonization of legislation with the European one and even the introduction of car license plates according to European standards. In exchange, Turkey received only on-duty smiles at EU summits and toughening of the visa regime for Turkish citizens. Deleting the prospect of joining the EU undermined the position of the Kemalist elite, which linked its political future with the integration of Turkey into Europe, and the intractable question of how to become part of Europe if it does not want it, caused a self-identification crisis at the top. The answer to this was the appearance of Recep Erdogan as the Prime Minister of Turkey, the strengthening of the Islamists and the ousting of the Kemalists and the army from the government. Erdogan’s impressive takeoff itself is an excellent illustration of the tectonic changes that occur in the Turkish elite. How from a lemonade seller in a poor area of Istanbul to become the most influential person in Turkey?
Some Turkish journalists and researchers believe that they know the answer - you just need to join the Fetulla movement. The Fetulla movement conveniently appeared to pick up Turkish statehood, slipping out of the weakening hands of the Kemalists. Although the AKP, the moderately Islamist party of Erdogan, came to power in the country formally, it is believed that the Fetulla movement is behind it and provides support in the security forces. The names of political parties mean little in Turkey - with a rich tradition of military coups, it was always possible to correct the wrong party from the point of view of the general line. The army and security forces acted as an invisible moderator of the political space. At least it was until recently.
Fetulla Gülen - man and religion
The movement appeared in 1966, thanks to one person - Fethullah Gulen himself. It was then that he moved to Izmir, starting to preach his version of Islam in the city mosque. Biography of Gulen is full of inconsistencies and white spots - only the place and year of birth exist in at least three versions. According to the most popular of them, the preacher was born in 1941 in the small village of Corudzhuk near Erzurum. However, one fact is beyond doubt - Gulen managed to create one of the most influential organizations in Turkey. Fetully's movement is not registered in any registry of public organizations or political parties. Rather, it is a secret society created on the basis of Gülen's religious and political ideas. In Izmir, then a cosmopolitan city in the Turkish Mediterranean, whose population was traditionally skeptical of religious fanatics, the preacher began to develop his own style: he preached Anatolian Islam, mixed on a powerful basis of neoliberal ideas and Pan-Turkism.
Izmir
Anatolia - the name of the Asian part of Turkey - has always been famous for its moderate attitude to religious issues, which found its expression in the concept of Anatolian Islam, which in practice is less strict in demanding respect for the ritual, while emphasizing material well-being and economic development. Such an interpretation of Islam, which is also called “Islamic Protestantism,” was very beneficial for the Turkish bourgeoisie — and donations did not take long to come. Thanks to the support of the financial and economic elite of Turkey, the Fetulla movement began to gain momentum. Ways to spread their influence and attract supporters were varied - preaching in mosques, the distribution of printouts of Gulen's lectures, the active work of supporters in his circle of communication with explanations of the principles of movement. But the main emphasis was placed on the education system - only she could ensure the totality of the approach, forming loyal followers of Gulen at a very early age. The first such school appeared in 1982.
Fetulla School in Istanbul
Now, after 30 years, Fetulla is a huge network structure that includes dozens of public organizations, the TUSKON business federation with more than 30 thousands of enterprises and offices in Brussels, Washington and Moscow, a system of schools and universities around the world, media holding with its own TV channels and print publications, and much more. According to some estimates, the annual shadow budget of this structure is more than 25 billion dollars. The budget is made up of membership dues, which, according to some data, constitute 10% of the turnover of the enterprise included in Fetulla.
The movement initially selects followers from the poorest strata of society, gathering them into their schools, raising them as needed - and taking on the costs. Grown up in this way, students learn about various areas of government and business, getting under the care of senior patrons from the movement, gradually making a career and turning from consumers of Fetulla’s resources into their donors — in turn promoting younger comrades. At first glance, such a patronage scheme seems to be quite innocuous and quite typical for an Asian country as a variant of a social elevator, however, as always, the picture is spoiled by details.
An important part of Fetulla’s ideology is pan-Turkism, namely the creation of a universal Islamic caliphate under the authority of Turkey, i.e. restoration of the Ottoman Empire in a modernized form. But even under this double bottom there is another bottom - the economic platform of the movement practically repeats neoliberal free trade agreements, proposing the abolition of protectionist barriers and the opening of the Turkish market to transnational corporations.
Fetullah Gulen himself has been living in the USA on a well-guarded farm in Pennsylvania with several dozen closest associates since 1998, managing his organization from there. A curious detail: when, in 2006, the US Immigration and Naturalization Service attempted through court to deport Gulen from the country, the procedure was stopped due to former US Ambassador to Turkey Morton Abramovitts and a number of high-ranking CIA officials who said that Gulen was not a threat to the national security of the United States.
The organization is secret and prefers to keep its secrets: professor stories at Ankara University Nesip Hablelemitoglu, who wrote the book "Köstebek" about Fetulla’s connections with American intelligence, was killed shortly before the book was published in 2002, and a well-known Turkish journalist Ahmet Schik was arrested a year ago. At the same time, the manuscripts of his investigation book, The Imam's Army, dedicated to Fetullah were confiscated. It is therefore not surprising when journalists and experts, speaking of the movement, prefer to hide their names.
One of them, who worked for a long time in Turkey’s largest newspaper, Cumhuriyet, and was closely involved in the topic of Fetullah, explains: “In Turkey, the entire 20 century had the tradition of the state in the state. Officials and security officials were loyal to the country, but first of all they were loyal to his patron. Fetulla in this sense did not change anything - they simply used the system created before them. Once it was the army and the bureaucrats loyal to it were the guarantors of Turkey’s secular development - as soon as there was a deviation from the path outlined by Kemal, it was a state in the state was set in motion: political killings or military coups were committed if things went too far. Now the situation is completely different - the army and special services are full of followers of Fetulla, their penetration into power structures began even 30 years ago. the few remaining Kemalists are doomed to failure to return the country to their former course. Time after time, plans for military coups are revealed at the very initial stage. They are sitting on top-class intelligence. I am sure that the Western intelligence services are pouring information to them - otherwise it is impossible to explain the disclosure of a group of Kemalists from the generals who were preparing a coup, all of whose communication went through channels in Europe. "(This is the Ergenekon case, a secret network that, in the opinion of the Turkish authorities , a military coup in Turkey. It included representatives of the highest generals and employees of various power structures.In the case of Ergenekon in 2010-12 in Turkey, more than 500 people were arrested, including the former Chief of General Staff General Ilker Bazbug - note).
Another journalist agrees with him, whose career directly influenced Erdogan’s coming to power - being a famous political journalist, he was transferred to sports news. “It’s not surprising that they fear me - my name Devrim means“ revolution ”in Turkish,” he jokes sadly. However, Devrim was transferred to the sport rather because of his political position. "What is happening is the fruit of a conspiracy of gigantic, epic proportions!" - he says. “Fetulla’s program is a real Trojan horse: mosques on the surface, women in closed clothes, Ramadan’s observance for the mob on the streets, in reality, privatization, the elimination of trade unions, the removal of trade barriers, the green light for banks and TNCs. the world will assume that Islamists have come to power, we will have a neoliberal revolution! This is the very Islam that is most beneficial for the West. And they simply run it in Turkey! "
Devrim has reason to think so - looking at the geography of the movement of schools in the movement, it seems that Fetulla has at least plans for world domination. The movement was originally created as a network of Islamic schools for all, including the poorest. Now, according to the followers themselves, Fetulla schools exist in 120 countries, including Russia. Only in Tatarstan there are 7 Turkish-Tatar lyceums, which are considered very prestigious educational institutions. In addition, schools exist in most countries in Africa and Asia, including such unstable as Somalia.
Fetulla School in Sudan
In them, students learn Turkish language, culture and Islam in the understanding of Gülen, and also educate themselves in the spirit of pan-Turkism, in order to be useful later to the neo-Ottoman Empire. Schools are just a brick and a primary grade level. The best of the best come to Istanbul to the Fatih University, the center of Fethulla’s educational system.
Fetulla Schools
Istanbul is the resplendent European capital of Turkey, a real window to Europe: a colorful, stylish crowd on the streets, night clubs with DJs from Holland and Sweden, boutiques of world brands. And at the same time, here, as many researchers believe, is the center of the movement Fetulla. In Istanbul's southern Butovo and Biryulyovo, in the faceless, shabby high-rise buildings, there are those who make up the base of Fetulla - recent immigrants from villages and from the poor east of Turkey, poorly educated and occupying a lower social stratum in Turkish society. One of the few possibilities of a social elevator for them is to participate in the movement - in exchange for loyalty.
Suburb of Istanbul
Devrim says almost admiringly: “Look at their level of planning! At the end of 70, their people began to penetrate police and military academies - and now graduates of these academies of those very years are sitting in all power structures. And at quite high posts! People who were raised out of poverty and obscurity, owed everything to Fetulla, will be faithful to them to the end. I am sure that Erdogan (who started his political career in Istanbul and became mayor of the city - note) made his career thanks to Fetulla. "
The future elite of Fetulla’s Pan-Turkic project is studying at Fatih University, a closed, well-guarded compound on the outskirts of Istanbul. I can get inside only with the help of one of the students who issued me a temporary pass as a "relative". In the checkpoint booth you can see weapon on the walls. "Expect an attack?" - I am making a clumsy attempt to start a conversation with the guards. Those professionally silent in response. However, the passport is still taken as a deposit - just in case.
Inbound Gearbox
According to the faculty index inside, you can study the areas of interest of Fetully - the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, the Pedagogical Faculty, Law, Philology, and here is the center of fashionable bionanotechnologies. Most of the buildings in one form or another contain the symbol of Fatih University - the anchar tree, which at one time was a symbol of the Ottoman Empire: a powerful root system personified the rivers feeding the empire, and the spreading crown - its territorial possessions. The image of the tree is changed in the spirit of the time to express the global character of Fetulla's aspirations: all the world continents are woven into the crown, except for some reason Antarctica.
Faculty of Law
At first glance, students on campus do not make the impression of Islamic or Turkish fanatics and sectarians, although the scarves on the heads of girls are much larger than those outside. A group of Russian-speaking students from Tatarstan and Dagestan - the best graduates of the very Turkish schools - are happy to talk on a variety of topics, until it comes to Fetulla. Smiles are extinguished: "Well, yes, they say something like that there ... It’s time for us, by the way!" Only one of them - beautiful girl Dilya from Tatarstan - agrees to talk in more detail:
“Well, you don't understand it yourself, or what? No one here will tell Fetulla anything! You yourself must understand - you have come to their university. Yes, we are allowed to read Gülen’s books - I can’t say anything more. I already live here "I have Turkish citizenship and I don’t need any problems."
However, the main processing of students takes place in the hostels located here on campus. They accommodate part of foreign students and those who came from the provinces who do not have money for more comfortable housing in the city. Here I meet Lassina, a student from Mali (West Africa). He already tells the usual story of how he began his studies at a Turkish school in his own country. Then, after a series of tests and interviews, several candidates are selected who are invited to go to Istanbul and continue their studies at the university.
Lassina
Lassina was one of the lucky ones. Fetulla pays him tuition and a dormitory, recommending that he attend Hizmet’s weekly meetings, which is the name of Fetulla’s grass-roots organization, which literally means “good deed”. At meetings, they are explained the teachings of Gülen and are preparing for a mission for the benefit of the pan-Turkist movement in their countries, where they will return after completing their studies. "They constantly repeat - you have to remember who opened the way for you in life, and help those who helped you," says Lassina. "I don't like them, but, you see, I need an education." Lassina is studying at the Faculty of International Relations and plans to become a diplomat after returning to Mali.
Devrim commented to me what Lassina said: “Fetulla’s aspirations do not cover the whole world, no matter what is painted on the emblem of their university. They concentrate mainly on the countries of Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. They want to become managers of this gigantic project. It is clear that there is no question of reviving the Ottoman Empire as it was, although they can revive Turkish influence through a monopoly on the “convenient" interpretation of Islam. The objective problem of the world economy and the West is how to include these countries The esses of globalization and impose their economic model on them - so that people do not multiply uncontrollably, live in their city and pray to God, but take loans, consume and contribute to the global division of labor. Fetulla is perhaps the most ambitious attempt to achieve this. : The population of these countries will enter globalization, even without realizing it and believing that they are orthodox Muslims, and the West is evil.
From the moment Erdogan came to power, Fetullah’s goals became the targets of the Turkish state — hence these shuttle visits throughout Africa, including even Somalia, where there has not been a single foreign leader in the last 20 years, hence the tightening of relations with Israel, curtsies with Arab countries, etc. etc.."
Editorial "Zaman"
The newspaper "Zaman" is one of the largest in Turkey and the flagship of the media empire Fetullah along with the STV channel, Cihan news agency and Aksiyon weekly. The editorial office is located in a new high-tech green-glass building, again surrounded by a high fence with security. I am talking to Mustafa Yulmaz, editor of Zaman business news. Unlike my other interlocutors, he does not hide his face and does not hide his last name - this alone speaks well of who is the master in today's Turkey. Mustafa in British English, obviously not received at Fatih University, retells the content of the official propaganda of the movement - Fetulla stands for good, we are just a network of schools, and why we have so many opponents - well, I don’t even know ... I ask him why the movement was banned in Uzbekistan, and in Russia law enforcement agencies constantly have questions about Turkish schools. The standard answer is ready here too - it’s better to turn to the Uzbek authorities and the Russian security forces for comments.
Mustafa Yulmaz
We are sitting in the lobby near a large aquarium. The rush of a large and busy office reigns around. I draw attention to the fact that almost half of the editorial staff are exhibits of clearly not Middle Eastern appearance. "Thank you for your responses". In parting, Mustafa gives a book with selected quotes from Gülen. I walk out of the cool building and once again plunge into the evening rush hour in Istanbul. In the shuttle bus on the way to the hotel, I, flipping through the book, stumble upon an excerpt from the preacher's interview with the New York Times newspaper: “The world needs a new system of international relations to counter chaos, and it can be created only by leading countries - such as the US - and respected organizations - like NATO and the UN. ”
I read further: “For me it does not matter which party wins the elections in Turkey - the reality is that a huge mass of people in this country practice Islam. And this reality cannot be ignored ... "
We stand in an endless Istanbul traffic jam on the way to the center. Adhan is heard outside — a call to the evening prayer. There are 85 thousand mosques in Turkey, one for every 350 people - and this is the largest number of people per capita in the world.
Fetulla Gülen
Information