Former CIA chairman ignores the events of the undemocratic coup attempt, while supporting Gülen and warning Erdoğan
The US Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) former Vice Chairman Graham Fuller, a long-standing supporter of Fethüllah Gülen, has defended the leader of the Fethullah Terror Organization (FETÖ) following a failed military coup masterminded by Gülen last week.
In an article published in the Huffington Post, Fuller threatened that Turkey's first democratically elected President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will fall soon for cracking down on the Gülen-led organization.
As clashes between Erdoğan and Gülenists sparked after 2011, Fuller suggested Erdoğan should abandon politics or at least cut all links with his own established AK Party.
The former CIA chief speaks as a spokesperson of Gülen's organization as he used some of the Gülenists' baseless claims against Erdoğan.
In his column, Fuller openly declared his support to Gülen saying, “I had spoken out in defense of Gülen".
Describes Gülen as a democratic leader, Erdoğan as an 'Islamist' leader
He compared Erdoğan and his AK Party with Gülen and his organization, which Turkish judiciary had declared one of the dangerous terrorist organizations not only in Turkey, but around the world.
Fuller said Erdoğan was an “Islamist" leader and Gülen was a “democratic", apolitical leader.
He stated that Gülen had always embraced the importance and dignity of the state supporting previous coup and coup attempts.
“He has supported the state against earlier Islamist movements that raised Islam over the state," said Fuller indication the postmodern coup in 1997 against the elected government lead by Necmetting Erbakan, one of the most democratic leaders in Turkish history.
“He [Gülen] even felt compelled to support the military takeover of the state in 1980," Fuller said that showed that Gülen had supported all military coups after increasing his power in Anatolia.
Then Gülen continue to support democratic governments, according to Fuller.
Fethullah Gülen become a cleric learning from an Imam in a small rural mosque after he separated his way from the original movement of the Risale-i Nur started by Said Nursi.
Gülen inspired his followers to infiltrate into the top positions of the influential government institutions such as judiciary, police, and education and information technology.
Though his organization did not have a transparent structure, he tried to shape Turkish politics by blackmailing, threats or plots.
His organization is accused of blackmailing many MPs, mainly from opposition MHP and CHP, by filming and publishing their bedroom videos.
After establishing a network inside Turkish state institutions, Gülen strengthened his power inside military.
Pro-Gülenist judges and prosecutors produced hundreds of thousands of false documents to open trails against their rivals. First, they targeted opposition figures to become more close to the government to gain their trust. Then they launched a comprehensive attack on Erdoğan and his AK Party whenever they were unable to control Erdoğan.
The turning point was 2011, when Turkey's democracy became stronger after a referendum allowing wide spread public rights.
Fuller suggested that Erdoğan should abandoned politics after this time for Turkey's democracy, as Gülenists accused, though he became president with 52 percent of popular vote.
He ruled out Turkey's Supreme Court's ruling on Gülen's organization that called it a terrorist organization. Fuller said that FETÖ “does not engage in terrorist activities, or support of political violence." He argued, “Erdoğan's charge that Hizmet is a terrorist organization is absurd."
Fuller use the word “Hizmet" as only pro-Gülenists use it to refer to Gülen's organization.
“Hizmet has not been a transparent organization — hence it's viewed as 'shadowy'," he admitted.
Though Gülen and his organization have been running hundreds of schools in more than 100 countries, thousands of businesses, numerous associations and federations, Fuller said that Gülen had lacked the capability to organize an army group for a coup.
Without regarding recent confessions from detainees over coup plotters on their link with Gülen and planning for coup Fuller state, “There is no telling what kind of 'confessions' will be generated.
Fuller didn't condemn the coup attempt, suggests Gülen should be future Islamic ruler
In his article, Fuller did not even condemn the non-democratic coup attempt, rather he criticized Erdoğan for “unleashed massive Stalin-style purges and arrests across the country".
He said, “Neither Erdoğan nor Gülen call for any kind of Islamic State, Sharia law or Caliphate. They both operate fairly comfortably within a primarily secular state structure established a century ago by the country's modernizing secularist founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk."
But later, he suggested that Gülen's group, which most of the main stream Islamic movements in Turkey and the Arab world rejected, should represent Islam's future.
“It sits squarely in mainstream modernizing Islam," he said.
Fuller indicated that the US should support Gülen against Erdoğan, saying the Turkish President “is planting the seeds for his own destruction".
The Turkish government last week officially requested the US authority to extract Gülen, with legal documents and evidences.
Despite all the incidents in Turkey orchestrated by Gülen, Fuller writes, “I still believe that Hizmet as a movement represents one of the most encouraging faces of contemporary Islam in the world."
He moreover, advised US authority to take his statement in favor of Gülen during the investigation process.
“I wanted the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to at least be aware of my considered personal opinion as they consider his case."
