Turkey enjoyed a full swing of development and progress in the decade spanning from 2002 to 2012. In 2002, AK Party came to power and its popularity was still so strong that in the elections of 2011, it gained a heavy mandate in public polls to return to power for the third consecutive time. In all these years, Prime Minister Recep Erdogan emerged as an active and courageous leader who not only brought into order the internal matters but also left its impressive imprints on the international political arena. In these years, the democracy got strong, people of Turkey enjoyed the non-parallel economic progress and expansion and Turkey emerged as a role model for all the Muslim countries by negating the widespread misconception that Muslim nations are incapable of institutionalizing democratic rule. Especially, the strong and influential element of Turkish politics, i.e., the military was barred from entering the politics and derailing the democratic functioning and transition of government.

However, in 2013, a number of events, one after the other, intensified the challenges for the government. The Gezi Park protests were mishandled in the beginning due to the over-reaction of the Prime Minister. A journalist, who uncovered the details of an alleged political deal between the AK Party and the military to monitor the members of faith movements, especially the one associated with Fethullah Gulen, came under the direct government threat for his courage. But the worst of it came when a large number of government ministers were accused of mass corruption. As a result of these, four ministers of Erdogan’s cabinet resigned and the Prime Minister had to overhaul his cabinet.

In today’s democracies, no government can claim to be absolutely free of corruption. Even the most transparent democracies like Japan and the US also go through the shocks of corruption by their members but they always resort to standardized procedures given within the framework of constitution and laws to investigate and penalize the perpetrators. In response to the corruption allegations, the Prime Minister took it personal and blamed the members of Hizmet Movement behind the investigations against the ministers of government. Members of police and judiciary associated or having sympathies with Hizmet were blamed to be the ‘real actors’ behind this problem for the government and it was termed as an effort of Hizmet to establish and run a ‘parallel government’ or ‘state within state’. As a response to this, government announced the closure of university preparatory schools (dershane) in Turkey run by the Hizmet Movement. There are also rumors that the government of Turkey has plans to close all the schools, both inside and outside the country, that are run by the members of Hizmet Movement. These schools have been termed as ‘potential threat’ for the integrity and progress of Turkey.

But before going to the further details of this political turmoil, it would be better to clear some facts about the Hizmet Movement. Though it is called a movement, but it never had an organized structure of movement rather it is a drive for the ethical and moral transformation of individuals. The movement is affiliated with the Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen - a preacher who preaches toleration, modernization and justice for all peoples and all faiths. Millions of Turks are associated with the Movement who are from different walks and fields of life. There is not present any clear hierarchy because they have never sought any kind of power or authority in the society or the state. Rather, the movement is honored for its efforts to make world a better place by opening schools, dialogue centers and carrying out relief work in more than 150 countries of the world. The Hizmet carries out all these services without any discrimination of religion, culture and political affiliations and it is the reason why, they have been welcomed in almost all the countries of the world. In Afghanistan as well, the Hizmet has more than a dozen schools and university preparation centers where devoted Turkish teachers are busy in bringing positive change in the society by uplifting the educational and moral standards of the nation.

Hizmet has also kept a distance from any ideology or effort to align or associate itself with any specific political party inside and outside the country and this nature of Hizmet makes it a party absolutely free of any struggle or intention to acquire state power. It is hard to be sure that Turkey would have progressed so far the last two decades to become a more tolerant, modern and democratic society without the sincere efforts of the movement members.

While closing the preparatory schools, no evidence or reasonable explanation was given and it shows the anti-democratic and authoritarian mindset of government to target a specific group without any proof in hand.

It simply shows that now Mr. Erdogan is afraid to face the fact that some of his ministers and party colleagues were involved in corruption and its admission may bring an end to his government.

Instead of resorting to unconstitutional and illegal acts of revenging, the Prime Minister needs to accept it as a part of democratic practices and go for the options stated clearly by the constitution and the laws. He should appoint a special prosecutor, perhaps an academic or Turkish international civil servant to lead the investigation and give that person the full support of his government. If Erdogan is confident that he personally has not broken any laws, he should remain in power and support the investigation to clean his own government and party of corruption.

But if he was also a part of this corruption process or had failed to notice it in his lines, the responsibility lies on his shoulders, accepting which he should resign immediately and refer the case to the courts. It is the only way of resolving this strife that would make the democracy stronger in Turkey.

Present approach of government shows the arrogant and arbitrary exercise of power, a personality-driven authoritarian mode of decision making and a culture of threat and intimidation, showing no respect whatsoever to the rule of law and justice. This also shows the ‘moral deficit’ in the party labeling it as a party to take any option to remain in power. This is also against the true spirits of mature political parties functioning in the oldest democracies of England and the USA.

As mentioned earlier, Hizmet is not a kind of organization that should be shut down or brought to an end. Rather, it is a spirit of service and sincerity towards humanity, dialogue and understanding without any discrimination of race, religion, language or geographical limitations, thriving in the minds of millions of devoted Hizmet members. The movement has added tremendous soft power to Turkey, facilitated Turkish business globally and spread the Turkish language globally. Most importantly, it has given birth to the spirit of working aimlessly for the betterment of the whole humanity. The authoritarian efforts of government may give it some temporary triumph but the ‘moral’ movement would live forever and ever as its roots emanate from the hearts and spirits of people.