Reports are rolling in that the mayor of Ankara – the city in which the Russian diplomat to Turkey was assassinated today – has linked the assassin to the Gulen Movement, started by Turkish President’s arch-rival and self-exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. This is strange considering Gulen and his movement are nonviolent progressive Muslims who are proponents of peace, technology, and democracy, while his arch rival Turkish president Erdogan is a free-speech hating despot who has cracked down on all forms of dissent since the Turkish “coup” attempt in an. Reuters and The Express report [emphasis mine]:
“[the] Assailant is a policeman. According to what I have heard, he is a FETO member. The slogans of the assailant are just perception management.”
In the aftermath of the comments Turkey analyst Ilhan Tanir tweeted: “Ankara Mayor just spoke and accuses “FETO” a.k.a Gulen Gr as an actor behind assassination, claiming just like shooting down Russian plane”.
Turhan Ozen, head of the UK’s Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD), also believed Gulen could be behind the horrifying attack.
He told Express.co.uk: “Gulen or serious mental problems is the only explanation I can think of.”
“Every day something is happening. It must be a concerted effort to destabilise the country and possible try another coup at the end.” –Express.co.uk
Note the statement: “The slogans of the assailant are just perception management.”
In other words: even though the assassin went on a passionate rant in the name of anti-Assad Syrians, the mayor of Ankara has – with no evidence – linked him to Turkish president Erdogan’s arch political rival, currently in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania at this house:
Erdogan accused Gülen of having a hand in his (definitely not staged) “coup,” however these rumors were disproven:
In 2005, a man affiliated with the Gülen movement approached U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Eric S. Edelman during a party in Istanbul and handed him an envelope containing a document supposedly detailing plans for an imminent coup against the government by the Turkish military. However, the documents were soon found to be forgeries. Gülen affiliates claim the movement is “civic” in nature and that it does not have political aspirations. -Wikipedia
Primer on Gülen:
Muhammet Fethullah Gülen (Turkish: [fetuɫˈɫɑh ɟyˈlen]; born 27 April 1941) is a Turkish preacher, former imam, writer, and political figure. He is the founder of the Gülen movement (known as Hizmet meaning service in Turkish), and the inspiration figure for its largest organization, the Alliance for Shared Values. He currently lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, residing in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.
Gülen teaches a Hanafi version of Islam, deriving from Sunni Muslim scholar Said Nursî’s teachings. Gülen has stated that he believes in science, interfaith dialogue among the People of the Book, and multi-party democracy. He has initiated such dialogue with the Vatican and some Jewish organizations.
Gülen is actively involved in the societal debate concerning the future of the Turkish state, and Islam in the modern world. He has been described in the English-language media as an imam “who promotes a tolerant Islam which emphasises altruism, hard work and education” and as “one of the world’s most important Muslim figures.”
Gülen was an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan before 2013. The alliance was destroyed after the 2013 corruption investigations in Turkey. Erdogan accused Gülen of being behind the corruption investigations. He is currently on Turkey’s most-wanted-terrorist list and is accused of leading what the current Turkish officials call the Gulenist Terror Organisation (FETÖ). A Turkish criminal court issued an arrest warrant for Gülen. Turkey is demanding the extradition of Gülen from the United States.[16][24][25] However, U.S. figures in general do not believe he is associated with any terrorist activity, and have requested evidence to be provided by the Turkish Government to substantiate the allegations in the warrant requesting extradition. –Wikipedia
Primer on Erdogan:
A complete dick, the establishment puppet and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan survived a totally not staged coup attempt in July of 2016, and immediately began dismantling Turkish democracy and free speech. Once the “coup” was over, Erdogan made over 40,000 arrests, fired 80,000 people from their jobs (including 3,000 judges, 2,000 university professors, as well as 120 journalists), and has hinted at executions. Wikileaks noted the following after the coup attempt:
Turkey's sudden withdrawl from the European Court of Human Rights, which bans executions, suggests that there will be numberous executions.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 22, 2016
Don’t believe the hype:
If we are to believe the words of the now deceased gunman, today’s assassination was carried out in the name of anti-assad jihadist groups – which would implicate Saudi Arabia, who just lost out on that pipeline through Syria. On the other hand, if we are to believe the unsubstantiated words of the mayor of Ankara, the assassin was part of the Gülen movement. If this narrative is pursued – and/or more solid links are uncovered between the assassin and Gülenism, it will undoubtedly force the USA (and Donald Trump) into a diplomatic nightmare.
Meanwhile, Putin has opined on the matter and it looks like he’s not buying the mayor of Ankara’s shit:
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on TwitterPutin says Turkey ambassador murder is ploy to wreck Syrian peace process https://t.co/AEpa0gCiqQ pic.twitter.com/ts1jsbw7MG
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) December 19, 2016
Interesting situation. Thanks for the info. We will probably never know for sure the entirety of what went on behind the scenes here, but it’s good to have what information is available.
“If we are to believe the words of the now deceased gunman, today’s assassination was carried out in the name of anti-Assad jihadist groups – which would implicate Saudi Arabia, who just lost out on that pipeline through Syria.”
Saudi is anti-Assad. But there are other anti-Assad jihadist groups supporting Anti-Assad fighters in Syria, in addition to Saudi. So I am not sure which, if any, particular group that might implicate. Syria is unfortunately a mess, with numerous groups fighting each other there, many coming in from other areas outside of Syria to fight there.
Frog, Saudi Arabia and Qatar both funded, supported, and by some reports brokered safe passage for the primary Jihadist Anti-Assad forces (Al Nusra, FSA, ISIL), so they’re prime suspects here.
The attempt to link this to Gülen is pathetic. This is high stakes sour grapes.
Agree 100% about Edrogan. But Saudis don’t have balls to get involved in confrontation with Russia. Think it’s just a guy with a gun and opportunity who maybe had family killed in Aleppo. Certainly can’t believe anything Edrogan govt says.
Zeropoint, what Tc says seems more likely to me– a guy with a gun who had his family killed in Aleppo. Jihadist forces and Anti-Assad forces are sometimes overlapping, and sometimes different. A guy whose civilian family was slaughtered by Assad and who is out for revenge is not necessarily Jihadist in the least. He’s just pissed at the murderer of his family, as any normal human being would be. he is anti-Assad. But that does not make him pro-ISIS or pro-jihadist in any way.
I know that a lot of news sources like to lump all kinds of groups together. And the different groups do sometimes overlap. But sometimes they are separate. Fly doesn’t understand this either. Another good reason to stay out of the M.E.
I do think I understand the situation but I seldom meet anyone else who does. And why should you or Fly or other people read about the M.E. as extensively as I do? As long as we get out of the M.E., it really doesn’t matter who is on whose side, because we won’t be on anyone’s side over there. We can just bring our soldiers home.
I agree with TC that it seems very unlikely that Gülen had anything to do with it.
Crazy as this may sound, I would have much more faith in the veracity of Putin’s words than anyone associated with radical Islam or a third world dictator such as Ergodan.
That the Ankara mayor is nothing more than a mouthpiece for him should be obvious to all because he has pretty much silenced anyone who has disagreed with him since the coup.
Nothing to see here. Not like WW1 was allegedly triggered by “workplace violence”. Everything will be fine just need more religion of people in pieces to invade the civilized west until total saturation. Then cult mats and trash bags will bring us together. Forever. In peace.
“peace process” = one of the worst euphemisms of modern times. Purely orwellian. Nonetheless, Putin seems correct about the intentions here.