Turkish Police Outline Workings Of 'Parallel State'

Police in Ankara on Wednesday submitted a file to prosecutors on the Gulenist movement that is allegedly seeking to subvert the Turkish state.



The report by the General Directorate of Security describes an organization that has infiltrated the police, judiciary, armed forces, media, education system and politics to form a "parallel state".



According to the report, the group, which is terms the Gulenist Terrorist Organization, seeks to undermine the government by "abusing society's religious feelings and collecting money under the name of 'benevolence' to use it within its organizational interest and ideology."



The purpose of the movement, led by U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, is to "seize control of all constitutional institutes in the country and obtain manpower by raising people in accordance with its ideology through its foundations, schools and tutoring classes and student houses," the report says.



The report claims to be based on the statements of the group's members.



Describing the methods of the movement, the report says followers "adhered to the organization with absolute obedience [and] without questioning and thinking."



The report added that the organization planted members within state bodies through fraud, namely by gained access to state exam papers, and launched judicial and administrative investigations based on false evidence against its enemies.



Police describe the organization as a "leader-centered structure" and a "hierarchical structure" that uses clandestine methods such as writing messages on tissue paper and using code names.



Even members' marriages are arranged through the organization, the report says, "which thereby increases alliance to the organization and pressures those who might want to leave the organization by keeping their family away from them."



The report adds: "The members are left to abide by the organization in terms of all their decisions about their business and private lives."



According to police, the organization is amassing a pool of data from its members in government service that it uses against its enemies.



Among this information is intelligence gleaned from bugging, the report adds. - Ankara