[ Erdogan ]I'm calling you to our cities' streets, where we'll fight shoulder to shoulder
Turkey isn't a country you can buy for a song
and run from Pennsylvania 00:01:41.760 00:01:47.400 [ VO ]Pennsylvania in the United States is home to Fethullah Gulen, he’s the man Erdogan is accusing. 00:02:02.577 00:02:14.856 In the morning of July 16th, Turkey counts the grim cost of the last 24 hours: 260 people killed and 2,196 injured in the failed coup attempt. 00:02:17.778 00:02:25.339 Ankara demands Gulen’s extradition, he refutes the allegations and the US government declines to extradite him. 00:02:31.292 00:02:37.532 More than two years later, and Gulen remains Turkey’s leading villain, and largely unheard of by the rest of the world. 00:02:44.885 00:02:50.486 The founder of a ‘parallel state’ in Turkey, the man behind the coup, killer and most hated: 00:02:50.486 00:02:57.451 these are the charges levelled against the man who has long been known only a figure who inspired new schools. 00:02:58.853 00:03:05.093 What is Turkey afraid of? What does education have to do with anything? And what did the students learn in these schools? 00:03:38.180 00:03:47.620 Osh city in Kyrgyzstan is where the country’s first Gulen lyceum was opened in 1992. There are now 23. . 00:03:48.700 00:03:56.061 With a population of 6 mln, that means Kyrgyzstan has more of these schools per person than anywhere else in the world 00:04:04.467 00:04:10.788 [ Live ]- Good morning, boys. - Good morning, teacher. - Sit down, please. How are you doing? - Fine. Alright 00:04:14.074 00:04:27.195 [ VO ]Arslan Mirzamomunov was sent to this lyceum after 6 year at a public school. It’s a fee-paying and very prestigious institution: only 120 out of 5,000 candidates are accepted. 00:04:28.413 00:04:32.094 The lucky few to pass six entrance exams move into the boarding school.
[ Arslan ]In the 7th grade, some boys cried at night, it was hard for them
The parents also missed their sons, some even removed them 00:04:48.456 00:04:58.416 [ VO ]The Gulen junior lyceums are co-educational but in grades 7 to 11, boys and girls study and live separately to a very strict schedule; 00:04:58.416 00:05:03.867 their wakeup call is at 6:45 in the morning and they go to bed at 10:30 pm.
[ Arslan ]Breakfast's from 7 to 8am
From 8am to 12:55pm we have classes,
five of them
We have lunch at 12:55pm
The last class ends at 4:20pm
From then until 6pm, we have free time
After dinner, from 7 to 9pm,
we have time to do our homework, do our own things, or read a book
9 to 10pm is also free time, but we use it to get ready for bed 00:05:40.439 00:05:50.244 [ VO ]The Gulen lyceum network was established with enthusiastic support from Turkey, both financially and politically, from private businesses and senior government officials.
[ Hasan ]Back then, Turgut Ozal was our president
In late 1991, he visited Kyrgyzstan
and he came here, to the Osh Region
Mr. Ozal supported the idea of opening schools
and helped the president of Kyrgyzstan with setting them up 00:06:17.020 00:06:22.860 [ VO ]25 years later, it’s hard to imagine Kyrgyzstan without the Gulen lyceums and their alumni.
[ Raina ]Why was that system attractive?
Firstly, in these Turkish lyceums, fundamental disciplines were taught in English:
computer science
and an advanced curriculum in English
[ Ishenkul ]Looking at the statistics, nearly 40-50% of the participants in the national science Olympiads
come from the system
They have winners in all disciplines
That's 100% true for English
They take the top spots 00:06:58.033 00:07:04.913 [ VO ]The success of Gulen lyceum alumni in Kyrgyzstan today is remarkably similar to the situation in Turkey at the end of the last century: 00:07:07.435 00:07:11.274 a private education system that trains the country’s political elite of tomorrow.
[ Emil ]They're very organised, they have institutions in various spheres of public life,
and
it wouldn't surprise me if they form a political bloc, a political party,
or join an existing political party
This can already be seen, to some extent 00:07:34.084 00:07:41.364 [ VO ]It’s much the same in many other countries where Gulen institutions have opened. There though they are known simply as ‘Turkish lyceums’. 00:07:41.364 00:07:49.684 There’s not even mention of any instigator, founder or first sponsor on a single plaque or in any documents.
[ Hasan ]If you ask people on the street who Fethullah Gulen is,
most will probably tell you they've never heard of him,
but Fethullah Gulen really does intend to open schools like these all over the world
If we're talking about Kyrgyzstan,
the idea is to stimulate the development of relations between the two countries
[ Emil ]I guess Gulen's name is only spoken by those who know something about the matter
Ordinary folks haven't heard of him
Precious few know his name and attach it to this school 00:08:35.007 00:08:41.727 [ VO ]Fethullah Gulen, the man who inspired the founding of these schools in Kyrgyzstan and more than a hundred other countries, 00:08:41.727 00:08:49.062 has lived in the USA for the last 20 years. His home is hidden deep in a vast Pennsylvania forest. 00:08:49.062 00:08:56.048 He refused to be interviewed for this film on the grounds of poor health. Gulen doesn’t talk to the press anymore, 00:08:56.048 00:09:03.793 but does sometimes receive visitors, and these brief meetings add mystery to his image as an influential hermit.
[ Damir ]To me, Fethullah Gulen seemed like a very mild mannered and affable person
that possesses a lot of knowledge,
with whom you can enjoyably discuss complex issues
[ Man ]He didn't act like a commander, but he wasn't all smiles either
Religion added to his gravitas
Folks were eager to please him, they didn't have to be ordered 00:09:31.128 00:09:40.727 [ David ]He’s a modest man, he’s a… He just comes across as a gracious individual. Very unassuming. And it was just a very easy discussion.
[ Supporter ]When I met him, it felt as if I was seeing my own father 00:09:46.052 00:09:58.052 [ Hakan ]Gulan. He has these multiple roles he has played. But one of the key aspects of him, he’s very charismatic, he has a charismatic personality. 00:10:00.173 00:10:07.654 [ VO ]The word ‘gulen’ means ‘smiling’ in Turkish but this smile conveys a very different message to everyone who sees it. 00:10:14.385 00:10:26.225 Gulen was born in 1941 in the little east Turkish village of Korucuk, which only consists of about 50 small buildings. As the son of an Imam, he’s always had a keen interest in Islam. 00:10:28.225 00:10:32.465 Legend has it that Fethullah learned the Koran by heart at the age of five. 00:10:40.622 00:10:58.582 [ Hakan ]He [ was ] raised in a nationalist, religious, conservative town of Erzurum, and… When he was in school, he got his religious education from his mom and dad, and his grandfather, so… 00:10:58.582 00:11:07.542 He did not have formal religious education. Most of his religious education [ is ] informal. 00:11:10.922 00:11:19.602 [ VO ]Professor Hakan Yavuz comes from the same village as Fethullah Gulen. For the last 20 years, he too has lived in the US, in Salt Lake City. 00:11:20.757 00:11:26.918 Yavuz has published books and organized several academic conferences and is the world’s leading expert on Gulen. 00:11:28.358 00:11:34.838 He has on numerous occasions met with the preacher and his followers who support the multi-million-strong Gulen movement. 00:11:38.122 00:11:40.521 - Have you been invited to be a member? Chapter 41 00:11:41.804 00:11:49.444 [ Hakan ]But there’s no membership! You don’t become a member… There’s no membership, no one knows who’s a member, who’s not a member. 00:11:50.158 00:11:53.438 - Still, have you been invited to participate somehow in the movement? 00:11:53.438 00:12:02.278 [ Hakan ]No, I was… I always had close relations with them. But I never became one of the followers. 00:12:03.686 00:12:14.965 [ VO ]A future world-renowned preacher, Gulen had three years of formal schooling. His imam father was transferred to a different mosque where there were no schools nearby. 00:12:17.011 00:12:26.171 Gulen grew up among Muslim preachers, with no teacher s, he learned physics, chemistry, biology and astronomy from books, 00:12:28.046 00:12:38.406 a history that spawned a controversial reputation: some see the self-taught Gulen as a shining example of a self-made man, others as an uneducated peasant. 00:12:43.042 00:12:47.042 [ Ilber ]To same extent the leader of this group is an ignorant peasant.
[ Damir ]Actually, he resembles a saint, in a loose sense 00:12:55.329 00:13:04.168 [ VO ]Without the distraction of secular temptations, friends or girls, aged 18, Gulen passed a special state exam and became an imam. 00:13:05.930 00:13:20.730 His penchant for teaching was apparent from the start. Working as a teacher at a Koranic school in Izmir, Gulen, now 27, organised summer educational camps for teenagers where secular and religious disciplines were combined. 00:13:25.365 00:13:36.726 This was unusual because religion was not on the official Turkish curriculum. Military service turned Gulen into a proponent of the Army-style discipline that he would later apply to his educational camps. 00:13:38.231 00:13:47.552 Discipline. Order. Hierarchy. They would all become the basis for Jamaat, a religious community under Gulen’s leadership.
[ Said ]Without Jamaat, you're nothing, you have to do what they say
[ Amur ]Lyceum graduates must pass a state exam to get into university
However...
the curriculum provided by a normal basic high school...
isn't enough to prepare the average student to pass these exams
So, in Turkey, this niche was mainly filled
by Fethullah Gulen's organisation
They created these educational… well, not institutions, let's call them centres
These educational centres recruited those students who would later get into university 00:14:42.569 00:14:55.328 [ VO ]Hard discipline with a focus on religion and the clerical leader accepted as a moral beacon. For some time, the way Gulen centres were run was accepted as nothing more than an educational style that attracted little attention. 00:14:56.647 00:15:01.562 The exams revealed nothing extraordinary except that that the students were very good at science. 00:15:02.095 00:15:10.735 In the 1970s, Gulen’s ideology was just starting to take shape, but would soon become a hot topic and his ideas seen very differently.
[ Ishenkul ]His ideas definitely have appeal
First of all, the idea of being tolerant towards the whole world,
of resolving conflicts through dialogue,
and overcoming ignorance with education,
the idea of beating poverty by helping the poor,
and providing decent working conditions
So, what's bad in this 3-pronged idea of Gulen? 00:15:41.345 00:15:51.544 [ VO ]‘What is bad?’ - that question would be at the heart of a dispute set to erupt in 21st century Turkey and other countries, and it would shed new light on Gulen. 00:15:52.729 00:15:56.290 People’s eyes would be opened – how could they not have seen it before? 00:16:02.682 00:16:05.871 [ Mark ]Almost like a mafia-style group that has global intentions. 00:16:08.252 00:16:19.251 [ VO ]The next steps followed in the early 1980s, a move from educational centres towards fully-fledged schools. The first Gulen lyceums were opened in Izmir and Istanbul. 00:16:20.385 00:16:32.626 Gulen proposed the idea of a volunteers’ alliance providing ‘Service’, or ‘Hizmet’ as it’s known in Turkish. This became a sort of code-word, how Fethullah Gulen’s supporters would be known from then on.
[ Viktor ]People who graduate from these lyceums preserve their friendships,
this sense of cohesion, throughout their lives
But that characteristic feature is not something that will stick in court
Membership in Hizmet can't be proven in court, they don't issue party cards 00:16:55.122 00:17:01.042 [ VO ]In the 1980s, Hizmet lyceums that nurtured team spirit, spread all over Turkey.
[ Viktor ]After a few more classes graduated from these Turkish lyceums,
Gulen launched universities too
There are 15 Gulen universities
I've only been to one, an international university in Antalya
There really is something to envy:
a magnificent building, great facilities,
a wonderful library, an amazing cafeteria... They have everything! 00:17:37.891 00:17:49.811 [ VO ]In the late 1980s when the Berlin wall fell, independent states emerged out of many former socialist countries and each one started building their own educational systems. 00:17:51.500 00:18:08.180 [ Hakan ]They wanted also the international system, especially United States wanted a type of Islam that would make these Turkic and Muslim communities in the Caucasus, in the Balkans, in Central Asia to look towards the West. 00:18:08.982 00:18:23.101 To create a more moderate, liberal interpretation of Islam. In a way, the international system, this transition from Cold War to the American hegemonic international system, 00:18:23.101 00:18:31.509 also provided new opportunities for Gulen to expand his power outside. 00:18:31.509 00:18:44.487 So, the end if Cold War in a way became an opportunity for Gulen to become an international actor. In terms of schools, education, and financial sector. 00:18:46.383 00:19:00.744 [ VO ]Inspired by Gulen and supported by the authorities, Turkish entrepreneurs and teachers started opening Gulen lyceums in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and other former Soviet republics with predominantly Muslim populations.
[ Ishenkul ]I think Gulen's idea was to open schools in developing countries, Third World countries,
to give talented young people the opportunity to be competitive in the 21st century 00:19:19.647 00:19:29.367 [ VO ]Former Gulen lyceum students from various countries often continue their education in Turkey and they tend to choose colleges that follow Gulen’s educational system.
[ Mars ]They go to Turkish colleges
Gulen has put a very smart system in place, very cunning
They seek out gifted people,
not necessarily from the political elite,
and lead them through life. That's Muslim culture
That's definitely going to have an influence on the fabric of society
And so, the people I know who studied at Turkish colleges...
they go to mosques and started doing that while they were studying in Turkey
No one forced them, they just started going naturally 00:20:10.133 00:20:21.812 {VO ]Lyceums have been opened in Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia. With no overt reference to being from a ‘Turkic’ or ‘Muslim’ movement, 00:20:21.812 00:20:33.048 Hizmet schools have opened throughout Asia – in Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They are in Africa too – Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, 00:20:33.048 00:20:41.934 Nigeria and South Africa. It’s said that by around 2015, Gulen lyceums were operating in 140 countries around the world. 00:20:45.745 00:20:52.425 The overnight coup attempt of July 2016 came as a shock for Turkey and now, as well as accusing Gulenists of conspiracy, 00:20:52.425 00:21:00.682 people recall old wrongs about which they had long kept silent. Turkish teachers talk of how Gulen institutions were ruled before the coup. 00:21:06.774 00:21:24.775 [ Ilber ]They usually hunted poor children. Poor youngsters who had no chance for a better education. And sometimes people who had ambitions but not capacity, that’s the worst. 00:21:24.775 00:21:40.188 And they trained and educated them in their hostels. Hostels are, I mean is the must of the ideology. They are always in three. Control each other. 00:21:40.188 00:21:53.064 If they can’t pass the necessary exams, never mind. Their agents get exam papers and so, they pass everything. They’re everywhere. 00:21:54.827 00:22:02.427 [ VO ]This teachers’ trade union in Istanbul, took a stand against the Gulen movement long before July 2016.
[ Cagdas ]Before the coup,
the schools were almost entirely in this movement's hands
The way they infiltrated schools looked threatening
Quite often, their people were appointed as principals,
as were deputy principals and senior staff
They created the curriculum
We came out against this,
as we didn't want to hand our students over to Jamaat representatives 00:22:34.204 00:22:46.404 [ VO ]Education as an extension of religious activity. Hierarchy, discipline, looking up to a leader – what began as an unassuming background, is now, decades later, 00:22:46.404 00:22:59.381 being seen more and more by critics as the major element of a Gulenist education. Hizmet influenced, even controlled Turkey’s entire educational system, at both school and college levels.
[ Celal ]I'm glad to see you. How are you doing?
So, we'll start from where we left off
The topic's forfeit penalty 00:23:11.400 00:23:20.479 [ VO ]In 2018, 20 students from a closed Gulen college transferred to study here at Yeni Yuzyil University in Istanbul. Chapter 80 00:23:22.604 00:23:32.443 The Gulen education system was completely destroyed after the coup, but people try not to talk about that, or even mention Gulen’s name. Chapter 81 00:23:34.082 00:23:40.441 Celal Erbay has been dean of the law faculty for two years, and a teacher for much longer.
[ Celal ]We all saw it happening, but we weren't involved
so I just kept quiet
We weren't allowed anywhere near. They got rid of our teachers
But what could I do? What could be done? It wasn't for us to deal with,
but then they were exposed
They decided to deal the last blow,
and gradually this came to the fore
They decided to deal the last blow,
and on July 15, 2016, they were crushed 00:24:19.454 00:24:26.975 [ VO ]Sociologist, Hisar Ozsoy also had first-hand experience of how the Gulenists controlled Turky’s educational system. 00:24:28.777 00:24:36.298 That was one of the reasons he went into politics and became a parliamentary representative of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party. 00:24:36.298 00:24:46.826 [ Hisar ]In 2013, when I came to Turkey to apply for some university jobs, then I was teaching at the University of Michigan. So, I came to here, and I asked people, they said: 00:24:46.826 00:24:57.385 ‘You need to go and talk to some Fethullah Gulen community members who are very powerful in the education sector’. I said: ‘Nobody is gonna look at my CV, my publications?’ 00:24:59.600 00:25:11.200 They said: ‘No. You go to the Fethullah Gulen community, to relevant persons, and then you get some, you know… You know, ‘ok’ from them, and then you come, and then, you know, you become a professor here’. I didn’t apply. 00:25:14.979 00:25:22.459 [ VO ]But the Gulen movement wasn’t confined to Turkey alone. With the support of Turkish authorities as a means of wielding ‘soft power’, 00:25:22.459 00:25:29.936 Hizmet lyceums were opened all over the world and applied the same underlying philosophy as in their home country. 00:25:29.936 00:25:44.458 The combination of secular education and particular and often quite implicit religious ideas will first misfire at the very start of the 21st century with charges that would come as a bolt from the blue.