Turkey’s July 15th Coup: What Happened and Why

353 Pages·2018·1.55 MB·English

by  M. Hakan Yavuz

Turkey’s July 15th Coup
What Happened and Why

Turkey’s July 15th Coup
What Happened and Why
Edited by
M. Hakan Yavuz and Bayram Balcı
Utah Series in Middle East Studies
The University of Utah Press
Salt Lake City
Copyright © 2018 by The University of Utah Press. All rights reserved.
Utah Series in Middle East Studies
M. Hakan Yavuz, series editor
The Defiance House Man colophon is a registered trademark
of The University of Utah Press. It is based on a four- foot-tall
Ancient Puebloan pictograph (late PIII) near Glen Canyon, Utah.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Yavuz, M. Hakan, editor. | Balcı, Bayram, editor.
Title: Turkey’s July 15th coup : what happened and why / edited by M. Hakan
Yavuz and Bayram Balcı.
Other titles: Turkey’s July fifteenth coup
Description: Salt Lake City : The University of Utah Press, [2017] | Series:
Utah Series in Middle East Studies | Includes bibliographical references
and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017051651 (print) | LCCN 2017052782 (ebook) | ISBN
978-16-07816-07-2 ( ) | ISBN 978-16-07816-06-5 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Gülen Hizmet Movement. | Gülen, Fethullah. | Erdogan,
Recep Tayyip. | Turkey — H istory — Attempted coup, 2016. | Coups
d’état — T urkey — 21st century. | Democracy — T urkey. |
Turkey — H istory — 21st century. | Turkey — Politics and government — 2 1st
century.
Classification: LCC DR603 (ebook) | LCC DR603 .T8376 2017 (print) | DDC
956.104/12 — d c23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017051651
To those Turkish citizens
who died defending democracy
on July 15, 2016

Contents
Introduction: The Gülen Movement and the Coup 1
M. Hakan Yavuz and Bayram Balcı
1. The Three Stages of the Gülen Movement: From Pietistic
Weeping Movement to Power- Obsessed Structure 20
M. Hakan Yavuz
2. The July 15th Coup: A Critical Institutional Framework
for Analysis 46
Mujeeb R. Khan
3. The Gülen Movement vs. Erdoğan: The Failed Coup 78
M. Hakan Yavuz and Rasim Koç
4. “Woe to Him, for How He Schemed”: Fethullah Gülen,
the U.S., and the Damaging of Turkish Democracy. 98
Michael A. Reynolds
5. Understanding the July 15th Failed Coup 130
Kılıç Kanat
6. The Gülen Movement and the AK Party: The Rise and Fall
of a Turkish Islamist Alliance 150
Caroline Tee
7. Contradictions of Islamic Neoliberal Globalization: The Turkish
Case 173
Sabine Dreher
8. The Coup Attempt in Turkey and Its Effect on the Future of
the Gülen Movement in the Post- Soviet Space 194
Bayram Balcı
9. Secrecy and Hierarchy within the Gülen Movement and the
Question of Academic Responsibility 217
David Tittensor
vii
viii Contents
10. Women in the Gülen Movement: Life in a Postmodern Display,
Enshrined with Sacredness 237
Yavuz Çobanoğlu
11. Navigating the Future of the Gülen Movement in Tanzania 262
Kristina Dohrn
12. A Turkish Red Herring? The Production and Consumption of
Fethullah Gülen as “Good Islam” 287
Joshua Hendrick
Postscript: How Credible Are Alternative Coup Scenarios? 309
M. Hakan Yavuz
Selected Bibliography 319
Contributors 337
Index 341
Introduction
The Gülen Movement and the Coup
M. Hakan Yavuz and Bayram Balcı
This volume examines the Gülen movement after the failed coup of 2016
in Turkey. Contributions cover three interrelated topics regarding the
Gülen movement with a specific series of questions.
1. The Gülen Movement. Is there a single Gülen movement or several in
differing contexts and conditions? What has been the main objective
of the movement? Did the goals and means of the movement change
as it became more established and secure? What was the nature of the
alliance between the Gülen movement and the Justice and Develop-
ment Party (AK Party)?
2. The Coup of 2016. Did the Gülen movement mastermind and become
involved in the July 15 coup attempt? If it did, as evidence indicates,
what does this tell us about the goals and strategies of the movement?
3. Methodological and Ethical Issues. What did scholars of the Gülen
movement ignore in their earlier study of the movement? What can
scholars of the movement learn from the current revelations of the
secrecy, hierarchy, and cell- like organizational structure of the move-
ment? What is the responsibility of researchers in accepting and
legitimizing an Islamist movement in a society? To what extent did
the Gülenists manipulate the scholarship on the movement through
funding, lobbying, and establishing chairs of Gülen studies in dif-
ferent countries? What are the main consequences of the coopted
scholar ship on the movement?
The contributors to this volume have carried out fieldwork on the
Gülen movement and have published books, articles, and detailed op- ed
1