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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