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Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4108/turkey-erdogan-gulenists-ataturkists
Turkey: Are Erdogan's Days Numbered?
(Gatestone Institute) Harold Rhode - Turkey's once seemingly-invincible prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seems in a tailspin. Erdogan's faction identifies and allies itself with the [Arab] Muslim Brotherhood. This faction was strongly supportive of ousted Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi, and also of Syria's fundamentalists. Supporters of the U.S.-based conservative Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen look down upon "Arab Islam." To them, "real" Islam is the Islam of the Turks - meaning the people who live in Turkey, Central Asia, and Western China. For Turks, these differences are seismic: Do they belong to the Middle Eastern Arab and Muslim political camp, or do they belong to the wider Turkish world? At least for the moment, the Islamist Gulenists seem to have forged an alliance of convenience with Turkey's secularists. The beneficiaries of this political upheaval could well be the West, the U.S., NATO, and Israel. The writer, former Advisor on Islamic Affairs in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, worked as an analyst at the Pentagon for 28 years.