memri aug 31, 2007
According to rumors in Turkey, the Islamist leader Fethullah Gulen (aka Hocaefendi) was seen last night boarding a Turkish Airlines plane in New York, on his way back to Turkey. The news was not confirmed.
Gulen has been living in the U.S. for many years – since his 1999 indictment in Turkey for organizing unlawful Islamist activities against the republic. Recently, charges against him were dropped and his trial was cancelled due to the changes made to relevant laws.
It has been speculated many times in the Turkish media that Gulen had been waiting for the Islamist AKP, that he and his community strongly supported, to be re-elected before he returned. Now that
Turkey has an Islamist president as well as an Islamist government the time may have come for Gulen to come back.
