600 charter schools x 200 graduates/year = 120,000 Turkish sympathizers produced every year

Tim Stellar, a reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, has written extensively about the Sonoran Science Academy school network and its ties to the Gulen movement. In May 2010, he posted a story about a column by a well-known Turkish journalist and political figure, Nazli Ilicak, which appeared in a popular Turkish daily newspaper on September 2, 2009.

In her piece, Ilicak related a conversation she recently had with two prominent Turkish men about the Gulen movement’s U.S. charter schools.
One of the men was Ayhan Bermek, a wealthy businessman, who is also mentioned on CASILIP’s page “Financial links between the Gulen Movement and Gulen charter schools,ctd.”  The other was Enver Altayli. A person with that same name is a former Turkish intelligence officer who was involved with the configuration of the new Central Asian republics following the dissolution of the USSR. It's very likely these three people know exactly what they are talking about.  

Of special note is that the U.S. Consul General had arranged for Nazli Ilicak to select the guests for a diplomat-hosted dinner in Istanbul in April 2007. The guests who attended were described as an “eclectic group of Turks knowledgeable of and/or sympathetic to religious leader Fethullah Gulen.” A cable later released by WikiLeaks revealed that in 2006 consular officials had noticed an unusual pattern of evasiveness associated with Gulenist visa applicants, many of whom were heading to teach at American charter schools.

With the Gulen movement's charter count now at 131, and growing (& currently enrolling nearly 35,000 students), maybe it's time to revisit the 2009 speculations made by Ilicak and her well-connected companions about the Gulen movement's motives involving their U.S. charter schools.

Below are four versions to compare, the final being the original Turkish text.

Wouldn’t it be nice if American parents were clued into all of this?  Since Gulen movement-operated charter schools are not a figment of anyone's imagination, wouldn't it be nice, too, if our pro-charter school-expansion U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan -- or at least some other politician out there -- produced a statement for the public that would address this very important issue?

h/t Tim Steller and the Arizona Daily Star. The underlining is mine.

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Certified translation by FoxTranslate (a professional agency): “We burnt Gulen’s ears.” 

One evening, Ayhan Bermek, Enver Altayli and  had a long conversation in Bodrum and we burnt Fethullah Gulen’s ears. Enver Altayli talked about democratic expansion and made the following call to the government: “Fethullah Gulen’s schools...If I were Tayyip Erdogan, I would have a serious survey done in the East and the Southeast. Whether there are children among those attended Gulen’s schools to become bandits and live on the mountains? Then I would present the results of this research to the National Security council and make those schools becoming prevalent specifically in the related region a state policy.” *

It is estimated that those who devoted themselves to Gulen movement opened up approximately thousand schools in 140 countries. Bermek said that there were 3 schools 6 cultural centers only in Tokyo and noted that thousand schools was a relatively low number. Yet, the number of Turkish schools opened up in the U.S. has been increasing rapidly. The reason is that Service** buys the “Charter Schools.” US Government grants high subsidies to these schools per student. The purpose is to make the education prevalent in the areas where relatively low income groups live...

We talked about these. If 600 schools are purchased in the US in this way- this is actually what Gulen movement supporters do- and if there are 200 graduates in each school annually, then 120 thousand Turkish sympathizers will begin to work every year. We try to lobby for Armenian Resolution. However we can teach Turkish and our National Anthem to tens of thousands through education, make them familiar with our culture and have them support us. This is what the Gulen movement is trying to do.

Ayhan Bermek, finalized the conversation by comparing Gulen to Rumi: “Rumi says, ‘Come whoever you are’; Fethullah Hodja says ‘I will outreach and find you’, his opinion is “Ember burns me wherever it falls” on the contrary to the common saying; “Ember burns where it falls”

As you see so-called style icons are not the only subject of conversation in Bodrum. Serious issues may be on the agenda as well.

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*Turkey has ongoing trouble with Kurdish terrorist groups in that region.

**Hizmet, the word the Gulen movement uses to describe itself, is a Turkish word that translates into “service.”

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Arizona Daily Star translation: “We Made Gulen’s Ears Burn.” 

One night in Bodrum, Ayhan Bermek, Enver Altayli and I had a long talk that probably made Mr. Fethullah Gulen’s ears burn. Mentioning a democratic initiative, Enver Altayli came up with a proposal to the government: "About Fethullah Gulen's schools... If I were in Tayyip Erdogan's shoes, I would have a serious poll conducted in the eastern and south-eastern regions. I wonder if anyone among the children who attended Gulen's schools ever chose to join the mountain guerillas? Then I would present the findings from this poll to the National Security Council and make it a state policy to increase the number of these schools in those regions." *

It is estimated that the disciples of the Gulen movement have established approximately a thousand schools in 140 countries. Bermek told us that there are 3 schools and 6 cultural centers only in Tokyo and claimed that the number thousand is smaller than his personal estimate. Because lately, the number of Turkish schools in the United States have been increasing rapidly. The reason for this is the transfer of the so-called “charter schools” to the Service. The Government of the United States subsidizes these schools in lucrative amounts per student with the aim of generalizing educational opportunities in the less affluent districts where many residents are low-income families.

We discussed the subject among ourselves: If 600 schools are bought this way in the United States – and that’s what the members of the Gulen movement are striving to do, - and if 200 students graduate from each one of these schools, then 120 thousand sympathizers of Turkey join the mainstream out there every year. We are trying to lobby against the Armenian genocide resolution every year. And yet, through education, we can teach tens of thousands of people the Turkish language and our national anthem, introduce them to our culture and win them over. And this is what the Gulen movement is striving for.

Finally, Ayhan Bermek compared Gulen to Mevlana (Rumi) and finished the conversation with this point: "Mevlana says 'come whoever you are', but Master Fethullah says 'Whoever you are, I will come to you'; modifying the idiom 'the spark ignites wherever it falls' he says that 'wherever the spark falls, it ignites me too'."

As you see, not only the jet-set can be the subject of conversation in Bodrum. Sometimes, serious subjects can be squeezed in...

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The entirety of what is posted on Fethullah Gulen’s website: “We Made Gülen's Ears Ring.”

One night in Bodrum, Ayhan Bermek, Enver Altaylı and I had a long conversation, and we mentioned Fethullah Gülen.

Leading the course of the conversation to the democratic initiative, Altaylı made an appeal to the government and said: “If I were Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, I would conduct a serious study on Fethullah Gülen's schools in the East and Southeast. Are there any students from the Gülen schools that go to the mountains? I would present the results of the study to the National Security Council [MGK] and make it a state policy to increase the number of those schools in the region.” Through education we could teach thousands of people Turkish and the national anthem. We could familiarize them with our culture and win them over to our side. This is exactly what the Gülen movement aims to do.

Bermek concluded the conversation by comparing Gülen to Rumi. Bermek stated: “Rumi says, ‘Come whoever you are.' But Fethullah Hoca says, ‘I will come to you,' and in return for the expression ‘an ember burns where it falls,' he says, ‘Wherever an ember falls, it burns me.'”

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Note how the two central paragraphs which mention the U.S. charter schools are excluded.

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Original version by Nazli Ilicak: “Gülen'inkulaklarını çınlattık.”

Bir gece Bodrum'da, Ayhan Bermek, Enver Altaylı ve ben, uzun süre sohbet ettik ve Fethullah Gülen'in kulağını çınlattık. Enver Altaylı, sözü demokratik açılıma getirerek, hükûmete bir çağrı yaptı: "Fethullah Gülen'in okulları... Ben, Tayyip Erdoğan'ın yerinde olsaydım, Doğu ve Güneydoğu'da ciddi bir araştırma yaptırırdım. Acaba, Gülen'in okullarına devam eden çocuklardan hiç dağa çıkan var mı? Bu araştırmayı Milli Güvenlik Kurulu'na sunar ve o okulların özellikle bölgede yaygınlaştırılmasını bir devlet politikası haline getirirdim."

Gülen hareketine gönül verenlerin, 140 ülkede, yaklaşık bin okul açtıkları tahmin ediliyor. Bermek, sadece Tokyo'da 3 okul ve 6 kültür merkezinin bulunduğunu söyledi ve bin rakamını düşük buldu. Zira, son yıllarda, Amerika'da, Türk okullarının sayısı büyük hızla artıyor. Bunun sebebi, Hizmet'in "Charter School"ları satın alması. ABD devleti, bu okullara, talebe başına yüksek miktarda sübvansiyon veriyor. Amaç, nisbeten dar gelirlilerin yaşadığı fakir bölgelerde eğitimin yaygınlaştırılması...

Aramızda konuştuk. Bu şekilde Amerika'da 600 okul satın alınsa, -ki Gülen hareketi içinde bulunanlar buna çabalıyor- her okul yılda 200 mezun verse, bir yılda 120 bin Türk sempatizanı kişi hayata atılmış oluyor. Her yıl Ermeni tasarısı için lobi yapmaya çalışıyoruz. Oysa, eğitim vasıtasıyla, on binlere Türkçe'yi ve İstiklâl Marşımızı öğretebilir, onları kültürümüze aşina hale getirip, kendi saflarımıza kazanabiliriz. İşte Gülen hareketi buna gayret ediyor.

Ayhan Bermek, Gülen'i, Mevlana ile kıyaslayarak sohbete noktayı koydu: "Mevlana, 'Kim olursan ol gene gel' der; Fethullah Hoca ise 'Ben sana kadar gelirim' der 'Ateş düştüğü yeri yakar' sözüne mukabil, 'Ateşin düştüğü yer neresi olursa olsun beni yakar' görüşünü ifade eder."

Gördüğünüz gibi Bodrum'da sadece ikoncanlar konuşulmuyor. Ciddi meseleler de, gündeme gelebiliyor.

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