Alwaght- The community of Fethullah Gulen, also called the empire of Fethullah Gulen, owns public bases; press, radio, television, financial and commercial institutions, schools, universities and numerous student dormitories in Turkey.

Regarding the investments in media, education, economy and market realms, Gulen has extended influence over various areas of Turkey; Political, economic, cultural and religious functions to the point of influencing Turkey’s foreign policy.

Accordingly, the article provides a framework to observe the influence and impact of the movement over various dimensions of Socio-Political Developments in Turkey.

Financial and economic matters in Turkey, fall under Gulen’s domain of influence and one could consider the TUSKON organization their so-called trojan horse. Confederation of Businessmen and industrialists of TUSKON was founded in 2005 and consists of 7 federations, 211 association of employers, and 55 thousand members across Turkey. TUSKON currently has a working capital of approximately 30 billion dollars. This confederation owns banks, companies, major financial centers and various mines including the gold mine of Izmir. TUSKON has offices in major cities around the world, cities such as Washington, Moscow, Beijing and Addis Ababa and operates in fields like schools, trade, investment, media and so on.

This enterprise has opened an auto plant in the Turkish city of Konya which is one of the most important economic centers of this country, 170 representatives from 27 countries attended the opening ceremony of this factory. Besides Konya, this enterprise owns and runs similar economic centers in other major cities such as Bossa, Ankara, Adapazari, Mersin and Istanbul. The Fethullah Gülen congregation has 73 associations and 473 companies at its disposal.

The Gülen movement has secretly expanded its influence on intelligence, military and judicial fields over the past few years. In one of his remarks Fethullah Gulen stressed, to make sure before taking over all of the strategic and sensitive government systems, no-one notices your activities. In his own words he asked the members of this group to bribe judges and keep them on the payroll so that judges in courts can rule in their favor. The mentioned statements were leaked and show that for years the Gulen movement has secretly operated, and prepared and replaced leaders in the judiciary, the police, and the intelligence services. So it seems penetrating and influencing the security forces and the judiciary is an important goal to Gulen. By taking control of these areas, he has several major objectives. First, he aims to have security and judicial control over other branches of the government. Second, by getting access to the source of criminal offense files, he wishes to conceal the felonies of his managers and directors.

In addition, the Gulen movement has considerable influence over the security sector of Turkey. To the point that Gulen not only has avoided hiding his connection to The National Intelligence Organization (MIT), but has repeatedly spoken about it in his interviews. For example, he declared the following in an interview: “In Erbil, (capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan region) we began opening schools for the Turkmen (a group of semi-nomadic Turks). I said to the president that they need these schools in the area to be protected against the assimilation of the Kurds. With the help of the Turkish intelligence service, we have decided to open these schools”.

In the meantime, the only area that the Gulen community has failed to influence and penetrate, has been the Turkish military. This is due to the strong presence of the military in Turkey's political and social scenes. Since this presence in the event of a crisis, could create certain challenges for the Gulen movement. For this reason, the Gulen community has tried to regulate its relations with the army with excessive caution, and they have avoided competing with army in political and social fields. However, this does not mean the Gulen movement has not infiltrated the Turkish military. In addition, Gulen was covertly supporting the court proceedings of military leaders in order to reduce their power.

Currently it seems the political capability of the Gulen movement is high. An obvious example of this claim is the movement’s activities in Turkey’s various political structures in order to cause problems for the Erdogan administration. Nevertheless it should be noted that the power of the Gulen community is not due to the support of social forces and various classes of the society. Because this movement is not a political party to have its own supporters and followers. In fact, the Gulen communities’ political power lies behind the curtain and due to the financial power of this group, they have infiltrated the judicial and security forces of Turkey, and they have influence over them. On this basis, instead of acting as a faction or political party in Turkey's political scene, The Gulen movement’s works have been similar to a penetration group. Gulen intends to gradually conquer the Turkish civil society through education, media and the economy, so that they are able to automatically and easily take over the power.

Thus, even though the Gulen movement claims that it does not interfere in political matters, they are very precisely going through a plan, a plan in which they train certain people and after their assignment to major and important government positions, practically intervene in political matters. So, many of the Gulen school graduates quickly undertake important responsibilities in Turkey and other countries. This is especially visible in Central Asia and the Caucasus regions. And this is why many of the people in power in these countries prefer to send their children to these schools.

Now it seems in spite of extensive treatment of the AKP in the political systems and the expulsion of thousands of pro-Gulen’s individuals whom Erdogan believes had infiltrated into the body of Turkish government by forming a parallel government, many of the movement’s supporters are still existing various political and governmental positions of Turkey. Considering the influence of the Gulen movement in Turkey's political and social structures, Gulen’s activity can be a challenging issue for the Erdogan administration. However Gülen and Erdogan seemingly are paving different paths. Since, Fethullah Gülen is perhaps the only figure who can prevent Erdogan from moving towards authoritarianism.

By Alwaght