Ex-Gülenist columnist unveils mysterious Gülenist figure

Hüseyin Gülerce, a well-known figure of the Gülen movement and renowned columnist who recently resigned from Gülenist daily Zaman, has made important statements to Hadi Özışık, a Turkish reporter.

During the Gülen movement crisis, unlawful tape recordings prepared by Gülenist police officers were obtained through investigations conducted by the intelligence unit of the Istanbul Police Department.

Along with tape recordings, there were alleged voice recordings of Fethullah Gülen, leader of the controversial Gülen movement, speaking with an unknown member of the movement, revealing information about contracts from Bank Asya and Gülenist TV channel's soap opera.

Hüseyin Gülerce stated during his interview with Hadi Özışık, that the unknown member, with whom Gülen was speaking, is Mustafa Özcan. Mustafa Özcan, according to Gülerce, is a highly controversial name who has close ties with Fethullah Gülen. Gülerce said "Anyone who went against this man was unable to exist in the Gülen community. Gülen does not believe everything Mustafa Özcan tells him, but he takes Özcan's advice on security issues."

"Gülen movement's followers will accept Gülen's demands if he told them to keep silent in regards to recent political developments, and not to use Twitter," said Gülerce during the interview.

Gülerce continued the interview by stating that Gülen is no longer the Gülen he has known, and loved. He said that Gülen's videos, where he continuously cursed, was never the path Gülen wanted his devotees to follow.

When asked what changed Gülen so drastically, Gülerce said "I do not know what brought him to this point. I only visit him once or twice a year because he lives in the United States."

The main issue Gülerce criticized during his interview was that the Gülen movement contradicts with its own teachings. Gülerce said "During conferences, the Gülen movement describes itself as service (hizmet) to God/Allah rather than to a 'special-service meaning'." Gülerce stated that that the movement used to take politics and bureaucracy as a secondary matter only if it ever valued anything to them.

Gülerce has parted his ways with the Gülenist daily Zaman, since the movement took the judiciary, the constabulary and bureaucracy as their primary priority.

Gülerce, earlier made striking comments about the Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 coup attempts in which he pointed out the timing of the operations, refusing to call them bribery and corruption investigations.


Read the first part of Gülerce's interview with Hadi Özışık:
"THE GÜLEN MOVEMENT HAS COMMITTED FOUR SIGNIFICANT ERRORS"