{"id":86831,"date":"2013-12-22T15:05:48","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T13:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=86831"},"modified":"2023-04-05T13:10:27","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T10:10:27","slug":"the-political-future-of-turkey-may-be-decided-on-this-quiet-road-in-rural-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/12\/22\/the-political-future-of-turkey-may-be-decided-on-this-quiet-road-in-rural-pennsylvania\/","title":{"rendered":"The Political Future Of Turkey May Be Decided On This Quiet Road In Rural Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

ADAM TAYLOR<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n
\n
\"An
An aerial view of the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center in rural Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, is seen in this picture taken July 9, 2013.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before it\u2019s even begun, Turkey\u2019s 2014 is already looking rocky. For the first time, the country will hold direct presidential elections, and there is widespread speculation that\u00a0Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will run\u00a0in a bid to extend his power beyond his term limits.<\/p>\n

Erdogan has spent 10 years as Prime Minister and 12 as chairman of the religious right wing Justice and Development Party (AK), but his tenure has become rocky, with Istanbul hit by serious\u00a0anti-government protests earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Analysts believe his latest threat doesn\u2019t come from within Turkey though. It appears to comes from rural Pennsylvania;\u00a01857 Mt. Eaton Road, Saylorsburg, to be precise.<\/p>\n

That secluded address is reported to be the home of Fethullah Gulen, an enigmatic Islamic preacher who has lived in self-imposed exile from Turkey since 1999. Gulen was trained as an iman and eventually rose to become the leader of a movement that espoused a modern version of Islam focusing on pacifism and business.<\/p>\n

Gulen and his influential supporters in Turkey, including key members of the police and judiciary, supported Erdogan for three successive elections.<\/p>\n

Recently, however, there have been signs that the informal coalition is crumbling, which could be a major problem for Erdogan in the next election \u2014 or sooner.<\/p>\n

Case in point was yesterday, when
\nat least 52 people, including the sons of three Cabinet members, businessmen, officials, and a mayor detained\u00a0in investigations of real estate fraud and other corruption. Gulenists have been accused of instigating the scandal, using their covert influence to gather evidence against Erdogan\u2019s followers,\u00a0reports The Economist.<\/p>\n

The response from opposition politicians has been dramatic. \u201cThe prime minister has become the biggest real estate agent in the world,\u201d Oktay Vural, a politician of the far right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) said, while Engin Altay of the secular opposition party Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) called on Erdogan to resign.<\/p>\n

Some say the supposed schism occured because Gulenists were upset by a perceived shift to conservatism by AK. Others say Erdogan\u2019s crackdown on private schools, many of which were funded by the Gulen movement, prompted retaliation.<\/p>\n

Critics of the Gulen movement say the group\u2019s vast influence and lack of clear structure are a threat to democracy \u2014 earlier this year\u00a0the New York Times wrote a\u00a0\u201cculture of fear\u201d surrounding the group led to many to refuse to be interviewed about them for fear of reprisals (one reporter who wrote a book on Gulen later found himself in jail). Either way, \u201cthis is a nasty and bloody divorce,\u201d as Kadri Gursel, a columnist\u00a0for the broadly pro-Erdogan Milliyet daily wrote this week.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, it\u2019s unclear if the people of Saylorsburg (population: 1,126) know that Mt. Eaton Road has become a matter of geographical importance. While the street has been a sight of protests\u00a0against the Gulen movement, Gulen himself is reclusive and rarely seen in public outside his 25-acre compound, which also houses a spiritual retreat center.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0rare interview with the Atlantic earlier this year, Gulen said he wasn\u2019t planning a return to Turkey as he was concerned about possible \u201charassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI find this place more tranquil,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ADAM TAYLOR\u00a0 Before it\u2019s even begun, Turkey\u2019s 2014 is already looking rocky. For the first time, the country will hold direct presidential elections, and there is widespread speculation that\u00a0Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will run\u00a0in a bid to extend his power beyond his term limits. Erdogan has spent 10 years as Prime Minister and 12 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":86832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,34],"tags":[120],"class_list":["post-86831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","category-usa","tag-gulen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}