Three risks in Turkey's anti-Gülen ops

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) has reportedly canceled all local meetings and ceremonies with speakers other than party officials or heads of provincial party offices, according to media reports on Sept. 21. While elaborating on the decree, a provincial chairman said they could not be sure about the origins of the guest speakers that they invite.

This move might be an indication of two things in the political atmosphere within Turkey's ruling party these days. First, it could mean that the party headquarters has started to suspect almost anyone in their social environment of conservative/pious circles could be a member of the covert network of Fethullah Gülen, the U.S.-resident Islamist preacher who is believed by most in Turkey to be behind the bloody coup attempt of July 15. Secondly, it could mean that an operation within the AK Parti to single out Gülenists - perhaps including some heavyweights of the party - could be near.

That is actually one of three major risks in Turkey's anti-Gülen operations and probes, which have been going at full speed since the July 15 coup attempt. Crowds are piling up in front of the Prime Ministry in Ankara and provincial governor's offices to register complaints about "unfair" suspensions or dismissals they have faced on suspicion of links to what the government and prosecutors' indictments denounce as the "Fethullahist Terror Organization" (FETÖ). 

But more people have started to question Gülen's connections in political parties, particularly the AK Parti. Gülen used to be a close ally of then Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan, but their roads radically separated in late 2013, before Erdoğan was elected president in 2014. It was Erdoğan-led governments that opened the gates to ranking...