AKP: Turkey’s new ‘red line’ is struggle against Gülenists

Turkey has drawn a new red line since the latest meeting of the National Security Council (MGK), and that red line is the fight against the “parallel structure” that has attempted to topple the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, a senior party executive has stated. which gathers the country’s top civilian and military leaders.

Continuing the theme of the local election campaign in March, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has repeatedly declared during his presidential campaign that he will continue the fight against the “parallel state,” allegedly led by followers of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.

However, this is the first time an official has described the struggle against the Gülen movement as a “red line,” a phrase that is customarily used for foreign policy items related to the interests of the state.

“The parallel structure is from now on the ‘red line’ of ours, the nation and the state – especially following the MGK decision,” Abdülhamit Gül, the AKP’s deputy chair in charge of local administrations, told state-run Anadolu Agency on July 9.

“Information concerning the judicial and administrative operations being conducted against illegal structures within the state was presented to the Council,” said a statement released after the latest biannual MGK meeting held on June 26.

Gül stated that Gülen’s followers were responsible for the leak of a recording of top security officials discussing possible military action in Syria to the video-sharing website YouTube only a few days before the local elections on March 30. “Is there any possibility for ‘an understanding’ that...