Gülenists versus the AKP – The implications of the new power struggle in Turkey between the AKP and the Gülen brotherhood

SILK ROAD FORUM with Mr. Gareth Jenkins and Mr. Halil M. Karaveli

Gülenists versus the AKP – The implications of the new power struggle in Turkey between the AKP and the Gülen brotherhood

Thursday, March 29, 2011, 10:00 – 11:30

The authority of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is being openly and dramatically challenged by the followers of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen. The Gülen brotherhood is believed to control the Turkish police, and to be vastly influential in the judiciary as well; its support has been of critical importance for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Recently, however, the relation between the AKP and the Gülen brotherhood has deteriorated sharply, to the point of turning the former allies into protagonists in a power struggle. Why has the ruling coalition of Turkey crumbled? What is the objective of the secretive Gülen brotherhood? What are the ideological and policy implications of the new power struggle within the Turkish state? What does it mean for Prime Minister Erdoğan’s political future, for the AKP’s cohesion, for the democratization of Turkey and for the country’s foreign relations? These issues will be discussed by Gareth H. Jenkins, Nonresident Senior Fellow with the CACI & SRSP Joint Center, an Istanbul-based writer and specialist of Turkish Affairs. and Halil M. Karaveli, Senior Fellow and Managing Editor of the Turkey Analyst at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center.

Mr. Gareth Jenkins is a Senior Fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Joint Center and Turkey Initiative. He is a journalist and has covered a broad range of political, economic and social issues related to Turkey and the surrounding region for international wire services, newspapers and periodicals. In recent years he has focused primarily on analysis, contributing numerous articles, reviews and commentaries to scholarly journals and edited volumes and delivering presentations at seminars and conferences. Mr. Jenkins special fields of interest are civil-military relations, terrorism and security issues and political Islam.

Mr. Halil M. Karaveli is a Senior Fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Joint Center and Turkey Initiative. Mr. Karaveli served as editorial writer at the Swedish daily Östgöta Correspondenten from 1991 to 2007. His recent research has been focused on the impasse of Kemalism and on the reconciliation of the Turkish state tradition with societal freedom and one of his recent publication is Reconciling Statism with Freedom: Turkey’s Kurdish Opening.

Location: ISDP, Västra Finnbodavägen 2, Stockholm-Nacka. For a map and directions, please go here.

To attend: RSVP to Ms. Ebba Mårtensson at emartensson@isdp.eu