Police revealed that Gülenists who are led by the fugitive imam Fetullah Gülen have been instructed to go underground. During investigative operations into members of the Gülenist Terror Organization (FETÖ) in the western province of Bursa, police found a list of 39 encoded items which instruct Gülen followers to "go underground."
Last week, police raided an association allegedly linked to the Gülen Movement and arrested 11 people that work for a human resources organization associated with the movement due to their alleged aims to infiltrate state institutions. While extending the inquiry, police said they found that one of the seized documents is a list of encoded articles that include mandatory instructions for members of the Gülen Movement to go underground.
In order to avoid detection from the government, Gülenists were instructed to not open bank accounts at the Gülen Movement-associated Bank Asya, which was seized by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), the government's banking watchdog, last year. The instructions also allegedly said that close relatives of members of the Gülen Movement should not be subscribers of Gülen Movement-affiliated newspapers or other publishing materials using their real addresses. In order to cover Gülenist cell houses that mainly aim to attract university students, they were instructed to put water and electricity accounts in people's names who are not affiliated with the Gülen Movement.
The instruction list instructs Gülenists to use nicknames instead of their real names and recommends not having common reservations for travel. They were apparently told to close social media accounts, including Twitter and Facebook, and to not comment on columns even positively.
The Gülen Movement is accused of infiltrating state institutions in Turkey and trying to overthrow the government. The government views the movement as a threat to its national security. It has been referred to as the FETÖ by a prosecutor in a recent indictment.
