Hundreds of people from across North America are expected to flood Saylorsburg on Saturday to protest a controversial Turkish figure, Fethullah Gülen, who has lived in the area for more than a decade.
A Turkish couple in Florida said they began circulating a flier on social media two weeks ago, encouraging people to come to the Poconos to protest a man they say is a danger to the U.S. and their home country. The protest is set for 1 p.m. by Gülen’s home and retreat center on Mount Eaton Road.
Gülen is a polarizing figure and Turkish cleric whose vision of Islam embraces science, education and interfaith dialogue. Millions support him, but his critics in Turkey’s secular establishment believe he is a dangerous man with a secret agenda.
The protest comes on the heels of weeks of conflict on the streets of several Turkish cities against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who the couple claims is Gülen’s puppet.
Turkish citizens first poured into the streets of Istanbul in May as protests began over a plan to redevelop a green space in the city. The protest spread to other cities as it grew into a larger movement against Erdogan and what some secular Turks see as his Islamist agenda and limitation of freedoms.
‘Dangerous’ man
Eda Yilmaz hesitated to give her name in a phone interview Tuesday from Florida for fear, she said, of reprisal. She translated for her husband, Armagan Yilmaz, who circulated the flier.
“He’s the most dangerous man in the world right now,” Eda translated, speaking about Gülen.
Eda said the couple works for media outlets in Turkey — she has a TV show on American culture and he works for a news agency — but they fight the Gülen movement in their spare time.
A call to the retreat center and email through a website for Gülen were not answered.
Eda said she and her husband are supportive of the demonstrations in Turkey.
“It’s not that we try to bring to America,” Armagan said of the protesting. “This guy who lives in Pennsylvania, he doesn’t go back. We want him to go back to his country.
“He has power because he stays in United States right now,” he said. “If he goes back, he is going to lose it.”
The other goal, he said, is for Americans to understand who Gülen is and more about his agenda.
Armagan pointed to the Gülen movement’s involvement in education and charter schools in the U.S.
“What he does is he takes the kids from a young age, he educates them for his secret project and then he is using those kids against America,” Armagan claimed.
360 say they’ll come
On a Facebook page about the protest, the event had 360 people listed to attend as of Tuesday afternoon.
“The protest will be peaceful and our message is clear, the USA should not shelter or host a dangerous man like this while we are fighting extremists all over the world,” the Facebook page says.
According to the page, the program for the protest will include the U.S. and Turkish national anthems, a moment of silence for anyone killed fighting extremists or in the war on terror, and information on Gülen.
“There will be buses coming from different states,” Eda said.
“Everybody’s trying to do something about this protest,” she added. “We just started it.”