Promoted to general at the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ): The 'Gülen' article published 1 year after the MGK declaration

With the YAŞ decisions taken on August 1, 2024, which will be effective as of August 30, many commanders were promoted to the rank of general.

Sözcü columnist Aytunç Erkin, in his article titled "The colonel who did an 'academic study' for Gülen has been promoted to general", drew attention to an article signed by Fevzi Orkunt Canyaş, who was promoted from colonel to brigadier general in the Land Forces Command (KKK).

Erkin wrote the following:

PUBLISHED 1 YEAR AFTER THE CRITICAL MGK

In the declaration published after the National Security Council (MGK) meeting on December 30, 2014, it was stated that "it has been emphasized that the struggle against parallel structures and illegal formations, which threaten our national security and disrupt public order by operating under a legal appearance, will be continued with determination." In other words... the AKP-community (as it was called at the time) conflict, which became "visible" after December 17-25, was also reflected in the MGK declaration, and the "parallel structure" emphasis was made in subsequent declarations as well. Why did I start with this reminder? A friend called me yesterday and said, "I am sending you an article."

I got curious and started reading it.

The publication date of the article is December 22, 2015.

'INSTEAD OF CHALLENGING THE EXISTENCE OF A STRONG STATE, GÜLEN...'

Its title is remarkable: "Interaction between official and unofficial institutions in Turkey: The case of the Fethullah Gülen Community." When I read it, I asked myself, "What is wrong with this?" and called that friend. He said: "The person who penned this article is the name who was promoted to general in the last Supreme Military Council (YAŞ), Fevzi Orkunt Canyaş." Looking at the promotion list, I saw that "Military Judge Colonel Fevzi Orkunt Canyaş was promoted to brigadier general" at the 45th position of the Land Forces Command. I quickly finished the 17-page article and my assessment was: "This article is an exaltation of Fethullah Gülen in academic language." Some examples from the article, which was prepared for abroad on behalf of Izmir University of Economics:

"... He passionately supports the existence of a strong state that aims to help people realize their dreams. He goes so far as to say, 'I would prefer even the most anti-democratic state to the non-existence of a state.' 'In this context, I am against the idea of the erosion of the state.' In short, instead of challenging the existence of a strong state, Fethullah Gülen supports it."

'THE FOUNDERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY...'

"... Therefore, there has been a variable relationship between the FGC (Fethullah Gülen community) and the Turkish state, oscillating between cooperation and conflict. The main reason for this is that the FGC is a multi-faceted informal institution, while the Turkish state is not a monolithic structure but a multi-layered relationship because it includes different official institutions (parliament, judiciary, army, and police force) that can adopt contradictory attitudes towards social groups. In addition, we must also mention the intolerant and undemocratic attitude of the Turkish state towards social groups in certain contexts. Especially the founders of the Republic of Turkey aimed to create a secular, unified, and homogeneous nation in the early Republican period. For this reason, certain religious (Sunni or Alevi) and ethnic identities were perceived as a threat to the secular and unitary Republic of Turkey, and the state tried to keep these groups under control in an undemocratic way."

FETÖ SCHOOLS

"Providing high-quality education..." Fevzi Orkunt Canyaş, who became a general last week, also evaluated Gülen schools in the article he prepared with Filiz Başkan with the following sentences:

"... However, after the ultimatum given by the army to the government on March 12, 1971, Fethullah Gülen was arrested and imprisoned, but was later released with an amnesty. Later, until the 1980 military intervention, he continued to give sermons in Balıkesir, Manisa, and Izmir, encouraged donors and parents to finance the construction of boarding schools, and established private tutoring centers to help students pass the national university entrance exam. With Gülen's support, the first tutoring center was established in Izmir.

"... FGC schools, which provide high-quality education to their students both in Turkey and abroad, follow the curriculum of the Anatolian High Schools, which are Turkish state schools. Abroad, the curriculum has been approved by national education authorities, and history and geography courses are usually taught by local teachers. Although education is mostly in English, it is also provided partly in Turkish and in the students' own native languages. The goal is for these students to obtain good jobs in foreign companies and to study at foreign universities thanks to education in a foreign language.

CONCLUSION: I did not make the comment "This general is a FETÖ member" just because he penned this article. I only tried to understand the act of conducting a study on "education" and "exalting" it with academic language in 2015, starting from the day the state called it a "parallel structure," and even including the Ergenekon-Balyoz processes that started in 2007. And while the presence of pro-Atatürk names among the retired colonels is evident... The interpretation is yours."