Ozcan Keles Musings of a British Muslim academic activist
  • Last week, the Foreign Affairs Committee of House of Commons concluded its inquiry into UK-Turkey relations and published its findings and recommendations in the form of an 82-paged report. That report was the outcome of 8-months’ worth of research; written and oral evidence from a range of people including independent scholars, the Turkish Embassy, the […]

    14th April 2017
  • The UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee is examining the bilateral relationship between the UK and Turkey, focusing on rights and freedoms as well as how Turkish foreign and security policies relate to those of the UK. The inquiry is ongoing. The Committee inquiry will cover topics such as the current state of UK-Turkey relations, and the […]

    1st December 2016
  • There was an attempted coup in Turkey on July 15, 2016. President Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party vigorously argue that it was masterminded and orchestrated by what they call, the “Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization” (FETO). This article evaluates the most commonly cited five pieces of evidence put forth by the Justice and Development (AKP) party, as listed and uncritically elaborated upon by a recent Al Jazeera report, to link Turkey’s failed coup with the Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement he inspires. Each piece of evidence is evaluated on a point-by-point basis posing pertinent questions and counter-perspectives that are desperately missing from the political and journalistic discussions in Turkey, and even beyond.

    9th September 2016
  • Different country and context no doubt, but I believe Chilcot has something important to say about Turkey’s recent obsession with Fethullah Gulen, the Islamic cleric recently blamed as being behind Turkey’s failed coup. I also believe that we are beyond the considerations of framing caused by inadvertently analogising between one set of actors and another.

    7th August 2016

The following joint statement below (in English and Turkish) was prepared over two years ago (November 2018) by a group Hizmet participants, primarily engaged in Hizmet-related dialogue activities in Western Europe. We prepared this statement of our own free will without consulting or informing Hizmet’s senior participants. The aim was to publish this statement in […]

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December 10, 2020, London — It gives me great pleasure to be able to finally inform you that the Westminster Magistrates’ Court dismissed the spurious extradition request against me on December 6, 2019, on the grounds that the Turkish government had failed, despite its numerous efforts, to provide sufficient ‘information’ to identify any criminal conduct […]

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It was just over two months from the Christchurch terrorist attack in New Zealand that had claimed the lives of fifty-one Muslims. I was sat in my local hybrid-mosque for the Friday prayers. By day, and any other time of the week, this place was a Scouts’ club. By midday every Friday, it transformed into […]

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From a white supremacist standpoint, here’s what’s “odd” about the terrorist attack in New Zealand last week. Despite Islam being a “religion of war”, “violence” and “jihad”, not a single Muslim man, woman or child took out their weapon of choice, concealed no doubt beneath their loosely-fitted garment, to return fire upon the white supremacist […]

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I am no expert on the law of Pakistan but I felt compelled to investigate further when I heard of the Supreme Court of Pakistani’s decision to declare the twenty-eight Pak-Turk Schools in Pakistan to be terrorist entities and for these schools to be transferred to the Turkish government’s Maarif Foundation. I located the “not […]

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NOT: Çağlayan Dergisi editörünün göndermiş olduğu açıklama metni ve bu açıklamaya dair yorumum yazının sonuna eklenmiştir. Uzun zamandır sosyal medyadaki Twitter hesabımı kapatmış idim. Yakın zamanda TR7/24’de uzun hali ile yayınlanmış olan bir yazının – Eleştiri Çıkmazı – kısaltılmış versiyonunun Çağlayan Dergisi’nin Şubat 2019 sayısında yayınlanmış olduğunu gördüm. Bunun üzerine bir çok şey söylenebilir ve […]

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Son zamanlarda, Hizmet Hareketi’nin dönüşümü mevzu bahis olduğunda ortaya çıkan söylem farklılığı sizlerin de ilgisini çekti mi? Örneğin Hizmet Hareketi’nin, “topluma katkı sunma” anlamında adlandırdığım “dış dönüşüm” mevzu bahis olduğunda ortaya çıkan yaklaşım, “geç kalınmışlık”, “hel min mezid” (“daha yok mu?”), ve “bir an fevt etmeme” şeklinde kendini gösterirken, konu Hizmet’in yeniden yapılanması manasında kullandığım […]

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Fethullah Gülen Hocaefendi’nin Risale-i Nurların sadeleştirilmesi konusundaki arzusu eskiden beri bilinir. İlk başta Necip Fazıl’ın bu yöndeki teklifine aracılık eden Hocaefendi, 1994 yılında bir sadeleştirme denemesini bizzat kendisi yaptı. Fakat gelen tepkilerden dolayı ‘İnkisar’ adlı bir yazı kaleme alıp bu teşebbüsüne o zaman için ara verdi. Onun yerine, ve ilginç bir şekilde, bir çokları tarafından […]

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