Islam and Politics in Turkey: Alliance and Disunion Between the Fethullah Gülen Movement and the Justice and Development Party of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Both coming from conservative Anatolia, Fethullah Gülen and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have, respectively, set up a movement and a political party that continue to make their mark on Turkey. Based upon the same vision of Islam and with a strategy of neutralizing their common opponent, the Kemalist establishment, an alliance, was founded between the two in 2002 when the AKP came to power. However, as it had been ambiguous from the start, this alliance did not resist the gradual emergence of numerous political and social differences between the two leaders. Less than 10 years after it was founded, the alliance between the two cracked and then shattered in 2013. Since then, the Gülen movement has been banned in Turkey and its representatives exiled abroad, particularly in Western countries. Under Gülen’s leadership, still based in the United States, they are trying to reorganize themselves into a new political structure.