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 […]

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 […]

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.

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.