The Future of the Gülen Movement in Transnational Political Exile: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

This article introduces a collection of articles that explore the altered conditions and future trajectory of the Gülen movement (GM) in the wake of the 15 July 2016 attempted coup in Turkey and the subsequent crackdown by the Turkish state. The question of survival has been thrown in to sharp relief by these events, which constitute nothing short of an existential crisis for the movement and have left members stranded in transnational political exile. How have the movement's civil society, education, and business networks fared in transnational space under the new dispensation? Does the severing of the transnational Gülenist diaspora from its Turkish base portend ruin for the GM or are there sources of resilience? What are the likely contours of ongoing conflict between the Turkish state and the GM in transnational space? The article sets these questions in historical context, looking at the causes and consequences of the GM's rise and spectacular fall. It then summarizes the approach and some of the main findings of the articles in the Special Issue, offering an outline of the broader lessons that emerge from them.

Critical Junctures of Securitisation: The Case of the AK Party in Turkey

“…The organisation was founded to provide opportunities to those with limited resources in Turkey and abroad through the provision of education and charity, and to spread a conservative understanding of Islam with heavy Turkish cultural tones. Starting in the late 1990s, the Gülen Movement organised as a global movement through educational institutions, civil society groups, business networks and the press (Watmough & Öztürk, 2018). While the AK Party’s founding cadre and the Gülen Movement had never seen eye to eye (Turam, 2007), they crafted an informal coalition based on mutual interests, especially after 2007.…”

An alternative reading of religion and authoritarianism: the new logic between religion and state in the AKP’s New Turkey

“…the Gülen Movement and the AKP had no consensus on the future of Turkey. While the Gülen Movement promoted pro-Western policies, as cover for their para-political agenda (Watmough and Öztürk 2018b), the AKP and Erdoğan distanced themselves from the West and started to instigate repressive policies. Furthermore, the two sides were not able to agree upon policies to solve some of Turkey's fundamental problems: for instance, the Kurdish issue.…”

Turkish secularism and Islam under the reign of Erdoğan

“…Again, initially, the party was the address for freedom, pluralism, co-existence and the fight against Kemalist tutelage, which has been much appreciated and supported by the Western powers (Baser and Öztürk 2017). It also received systematic support from local groups, such as the Gülen movement, which has played both an active and a passive role in Turkey's transformation (Watmough and Öztürk 2018). At this point, while many have perceived the AKP as a potent saviour, many others including Kemalist and laik groups have assessed the party for its hypocrisy, convinced that it has always followed a secret Islamist agenda.…”