Azerbaijan closes schools affiliated with the Gulen Movement

Azerbaijan has came to a decision on Wednesday to close schools in affiliation with the Gülen Movement. Due to additional costs, financial and management issues the decision came to shut down the schools linked to the Gülen Movement called, "Araz Kurslar."

The statement came from the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) who have in the past year acquired schools owned by the Gülen Movement called 'Cağ Öğretim İşletme'. The Azerbaijani International Education Center (UEM) had a meeting and decided that running the schools would be too costly.

The Gülen Movement is an influential group that evolved from a religious congregation to a network of followers united by anti-government ambitions. It operates schools in numerous countries around the world, including Azerbaijan. Following the Dec. 17 operation, during which Gülenists launched a campaign against the government under the guise of a graft probe, the government moved to purge members of the organization in state and government agencies. According to unconfirmed media reports, the administration in Azerbaijan, which maintains close ties with Turkey, allegedly sacked a senior presidential adviser to President Ilham Aliyev over his ties to Gülenists and launched a probe into the activities of Gülenists in Azerbaijan.

A letter leaked online earlier this month revealed Gülenists' financial power and influence in Azerbaijan. In the letter, a follower presented a "financial report" of the movement's activities in Azerbaijan for 2013 to the movement's U.S.-based leader Fethullah Gülen. The report shows that the movement controls assets of over $2 million (TL 4.28 million) in the country and "presented gifts to influential people in Azerbaijan" worth $732,000, implying bribery, as well as expenses for "friends in state agencies."

The letter states that the movement has trouble transferring finances to Turkey "for obvious reasons," possibly referring to the fallout between the government and the movement, and asks for Gülen's advice on the matter.