"The reactions of the West and America to human rights violations in Turkey fell far behind expectations. We cannot say that they did not make any noise. Voices were raised from time to time from members of parliament, senators, ministry spokesmen and organizations within the European Union, but these mostly remained verbal and did not turn into sanctions. Unfortunately, short-term interests come to the fore in interstate relations. Europe's concerns about Syrian refugees and America's strategic relations with Turkey are among the main dynamics that shape the issue. Essentially, Turkey's embrace of Syrian refugees is not Erdogan's personal decision, it is the general attitude of the Turkish people. When we look at the issue from a security perspective, we can say that; Erdogan's taking all of Turkey's democratic institutions under his tutelage, one by one, drags the region into a tangle of problems. On the one hand, they are coerced into cooperating in the military and intelligence fields, while on the other hand, they are pursuing policies that pave the way for the continuation of violence and terrorism. A Turkey that moves away from being a democratic state of law is likely to be a part of radicalism and conflicts rather than being a representative of stability and peace in the region... As a matter of fact, we see examples of this."
Fethullah Gülen

January 1, 1970

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