Fethullah Gulen and Turkey's Failed Coup
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2016
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Turkey's president put the blame on the Gulen movement for an attempted coup - but what is it? The Briefing Room explores the roots and influence of this transnational Islamic religious and social movement.
More than 50,000 people in the military, the judiciary, schools and other state institutions were arrested, sacked or suspended by the Turkish government since the thwarted coup attempt and President Erdoğan pointed the finger of blame at the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers.
Gulen has denied all involvement - but who is he, and what is his influence? David Aaronovitch talks to experts about the enigmatic movement Fethullah Gulen has inspired and asks how credible his claims of his involvement in the failed uprising are.
CONTRIBUTORS
Edward Stourton, BBC broadcaster and presenter of Islam Inc, a Radio 4 documentary about the Gulen movement.
Firdevs Robinson, London-based journalist and former editor with BBC World Service.
Gareth Jenkins, writer and analyst based in Istanbul.
Ismail Mesut Sezgin, UK-based Fethullah Gulen supporter.
Producers: Phil Kemp and Helen Grady Researcher: Kirsteen Knight.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading the briefing room. |
| 0:02.4 | We decided to postpone our programme on people who were persuaded to remain in the referendum. |
| 0:07.5 | We're planning to bring you that next week, unless we need to brief you on anything else. |
| 0:11.4 | This week, David Aronovich explores the movement some have accused of being behind the failed uprising in Turkey. |
| 0:21.0 | Friday night's attempted coup in Turkey. Friday night's attempted coup in Turkey. |
| 0:24.7 | It ended in victory for the sitting government |
| 0:26.7 | of President Erdogan, |
| 0:28.4 | who immediately blamed a movement called the Gulenists. |
| 0:32.7 | But who are the Gulenists? |
| 0:36.1 | Were they responsible, and what will happen to them now? |
| 0:39.9 | Step inside the briefing room and we'll try and find out. |
| 0:47.4 | The BBC's Ed Sturton has long taken an interest in that, to us, strange world of Fetula Gulen. |
| 0:55.0 | Ed will be joining me later in a briefing room discussion, but first, here is his report. |
| 1:03.1 | Suspitions of an entrious plot by the Gulenists aren't new. |
| 1:06.9 | In a video which surfaced in 1999, Vatula Gulen apparently told his followers, |
| 1:11.9 | You must move within the arteries of the system |
| 1:14.1 | without anyone noticing your existence |
| 1:16.6 | until you reach all the power centers. |
| 1:19.6 | You must wait until such a time |
| 1:21.4 | as you have got all the state power, |
| 1:24.2 | until you have brought to your side |
| 1:25.6 | all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey. |
... |
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