A few months back the KRG granted the right to the Fezalar Educational Institutions to open its first Turkish University in South Kurdistan.
Ishik University and Fezalar are both organisations that belong to the Fethullah Gulen movement.
Gulen is the man behind the Islamisation of Turkey and behind the AKP party that has come to power, slowly breaking down the secluar identity of Turkey.
How did they do this? Through educational institutions.
In a recent article posted on the Middle East Forum, Rachel Sharon-Krespin outlines the overall aims and objectives of the Gulen movement. She writes about the history of the movement its development and its gradual domination of Turkey.
In the article Rachel refers to Fethullah Gulen's right hand man for 25 years, Nurettin Veren, in estimating that:
"75 percent of Turkey's two million preparatory school students are enrolled in Gülen institutions. He controls thousands of top-tier secondary schools, colleges, and student dormitories throughout Turkey, as well as private universities, the largest being Fatih University in Istanbul. Outside Turkey, his movement runs hundreds of secondary schools and dozens of universities in 110 countries worldwide.
The article goes on to state that "followers target youth in the eighth through twelfth grades, mentor and indoctrinate them in the ışıkevi, educate them in the Fethullah schools, and prepare them for future careers in legal, political, and educational professions in order to create the ruling classes of the future Islamist, Turkish state."
The Gulen movement has been accused of waging an "education jihad" in Turkey.
This isn't a bad thing surely? It's obvious that Turkey doesn't have to most representative system in the world so such a movement can only bring benefit people, right?
Well once you look at what Veren goes on to say in a 2006 interview you will understand that things are not so straight forward. Veren:
"These schools are like shop windows. Recruitment and Islamization activities are carried out through night classes... Children whom we educated in Turkey are now in the highest positions. There are governors, judges, military officers. There are ministers in the government. [red]They consult Gülen before doing anything."[/red]
So basically this is a movement that is slowly monopolising power within Turkey through the AKP and educational institutions, with the ultimate aim of Islamising Turkey and submitting it to the rule of Gulen himself. (read the article to see how most other institutions of Turkey have fallen to Gulen and AKP.
Now let's go back to South Kurdistan
The Gulen movement already has 3 colleges in the South, and they have been "educating" children for a long time. One of these students was on the Kurdish forum VivaKurdistan, she was fluent in Turkish and was very sympathetic to Turks and Iran in addition to being anti-Israel.
By opening the Ishik University what is KRG doing to South Kurdistan?
They are basically laying the foundations for their own downfall and for the submission of South Kurdistan to the will of Gulen. They want to take us back to the Ottoman Empire where we will be taking our orders from Turkey.
The most dangerous thing is that they have a good chance of achieving this aim. We all know how corrupt the KRG is and how fed up our people are with Kurdish politics. We all know of the rising power of the Islamic parties in Kurdistan.
The Gulen movement brought AKP to power in Turkey because of the hate the majority of Turks had for the secular establishment. For the corruption and authoritarian power they held over Turkey and for the millions of Kurds and Turks the military has killed in Turkey and Bakur.
My ultimate worry is that if the KRG doesn't fix up, they will be toppled by this same movement
I'm not happy with how the KRG is operating, but I won't accept orders from Turks.
I WANT TO THANK RASTBINI BLOG FOR POSTING THEIR ARTICLE ABOUT THIS MOVEMENT THAT LED ME TO JOIN THE DOTS