Reva,
I hope you have had a restful holiday season. I just wanted to pass
along a couple of new items that you might be interested in. In your last
email, you responded to information about Turkey's EU accession efforts.
I have attached a thesis paper. The author thinks the AKP is pursuing
accession for three reasons that advance the AKP's anti-secular agenda.
#1 a public/politically controlled military #2 less power for the
Constitutional Courts and #3 less government restriction on religious
matters. The paper also outlines US policy suggestions that I think are
insightful. The paper also briefly touches on Gulen's hand in all this.
Jon
On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 10:49 AM, Reva Bhalla <reva.bhalla@stratfor.com>
wrote:
Hi Jon,
Sorry, I've been buried in other projects and still haven't been able to
tackle this Gulen project yet. Although, I have been getting to know
more of the Turkish diplomatic circuit here in DC, and they are all
extremely paranoid about Gulen. If you talk to anyone in the military,
they refer to Gulen with disgust and to AKP as 'fundamentalists.' The
dichotomy is fascinating. I am hoping to carve out some time in the
weeks ahead to focus more on this. Will keep you updated, and thank you
so much for passing along this reading material. The EU integration
piece was quite interesting.
Take care,
Reva
On Oct 14, 2009, at 11:07 AM, Jon Tracy wrote:
Reva,
It has been a while and I was just wondering if you had a chance to
take a closer look at Gulen yet?
On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 11:13 AM, Reva Bhalla
<reva.bhalla@stratfor.com> wrote:
Jon,
Thanks for passing all this information along. Will be going through
all this over the long weekend. WIll be in touch.
Best,
Reva
On Aug 28, 2009, at 11:20 PM, Jon Tracy wrote:
This article agrees with that point. http://www.meriajournal.com/en/asp/journal/2008/december/park/index.asp#bio
I hope this tidbit gets you curious. This is just a small
fraction of my research. I look forward to speaking with you and
sending you more information. When you get a chance, please feel
free to call anytime (I am on Mountain Time) 509-868-1625. I
hope you have a good weekend.
On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 12:44 PM, Jon Tracy
<jonmarktracy@gmail.com> wrote:
I will look forward to hearing from you soon.
On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 12:17 PM, Reva Bhalla
<reva.bhalla@stratfor.com> wrote:
Hi Jon,
I read your article. This is so interesting... I had no idea
that the Gulen movement was this deeply entrenched even in the
US educational system. I completely understand your concerns
in protecting your identity, and I assure you that I will not
do anything to betray that trust. Our company looks at this
from a purely geopolitical perspective and information we
exchange will never be attributed to a specific name or
source.
I'll be digging into this Gulen project when I'm back in DC. I
would like to touch base with you again and have a more
in-depth conversation on all this after I'm able to gather
more information about their activities from their
headquarters there. I know quite a few Turks who are close to
the Gulen leadership and am really eager to learn exactly how
this movement works here in the US and overseas. From your
description, this sounds like a very cultish organization.
Let's definitely keep in touch. Please feel free to contact me
at any time. I look forward to chatting with you about this
soon.
Take care,
Reva
On Aug 26, 2009, at 1:03 PM, Jon Tracy wrote:
Reva,
Thank you for writing me back so quickly. I have not
published my information, but my research has been used for
a story in the Salt Lake Tribune (July 17, 2009's Front
Page http://www.sltrib.com/education/ci_12855515) regarding
the local Gulen affiliated charter school. The reporter did
a poor job with my information and tried to write a balanced
piece which really watered down the hard facts but at least
we got some of the information out there. She told me after
meeting with the school's administration, she has no doubt
about school's affiliation to Gulen but had to be careful
for liability reasons.
My wife was a teacher at the school mentioned in the
article and had many very disturbing run-ins with the
school's Turkish administration which led to my research.
We have about a half dozen Utah state legislators working
with me and an ex-school board member trying to get the
school investigated and closed down.
I have found over 100 of these publicly funded charter
schools in 21 states. All the administrators and Turkish
teachers can be tied to Gulen organizations and other
schools. When they are confronted, they deny and threaten
suit against the person making the claim. I have made
contact with professors, journalists, teachers at the
schools and parents at the schools that have supplied me
with a huge amount of information tying this all together.
I would be interested in speaking to you about this
subject if you are interested. I have a mountain of
information that I can share. Since you are aware of who
this man is, I am sure you can understand why I don't not
want to just send out information that will not be used.
After my personal experience with Gulen's followers I need
to be careful. I am very skeptical about their intentions
after what I have seen first hand. Please feel free to
contact me at 509-868-1625 and we can chat and start the
flow of information. Thank you.
-Jon Tracy
On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 11:30 AM, Reva Bhalla
<reva.bhalla@stratfor.com> wrote:
Mr. Tracy,
Thanks for writing in. I am actually quite aware of the
Gulen movement's growing prowess around the globe and have
been studying the movement a lot more in the past year. I
included one analysis below where we discuss the Gulen in
some detail, but I am working on a much deeper assessment
that fits into the wider context of Turkey's resurgence. I
find it really interesting how tightly organized the
movement is and the manner in which it interacts with the
AKP. It's a strange mutual dependency.
Have you written on your research of the Gulen followers?
I would love to hear what you have learned. I am based in
DC and am hoping to tap the network up there when I go
back next week. Let's keep in touch.
All the best,
Reva
Reva Bhalla
Director of Analysis
STRATFOR
On Aug 26, 2009, at 12:20 PM, jonmarktracy@gmail.com
wrote:
Jonathan Tracy sent a message using the contact form at
https://www.stratfor.com/contact.
I searched your site and found no information on
Fethullah Gulen. This man
is becoming more influential in Turkey and the world. I
have personally
researched Gulen's followers in the United States and
their activities
involving the establishment on over 100 tax payer funded
Charter Schools in
the United States. Please contact me if you would be
interested in my
information. For now, I would appreciate you keeping my
name and this
information confidential due to its very sensitive
nature. Thank you.
