Rıza Zelyut accuses Cumhuriyet of FETO affiliation, but had no end of praise for FETO

Following the appearance as a witness at the hearing held today of Aydınlık columnist Rıza Zelyut, who supports the operation staged against Cumhuriyet on charges of Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organisation (FETO) affiliation,controversy has raged over the award he received from the Gulenists and his article praising Fethullah Gülen. Zelyut proclaimed Fethullah Gülen to be the greatest nationalist in an article he wrote in Güneş newspaper in 2011.

Zelyut made the following pronouncements in his article published in Güneş newspaper in 2011:

“On examination, you see that Fethullah Gülen and his community (this has long since moved beyond being a brotherhood) have for years operated an important movement for maintaining and taking into the future the identity of the Turkish People. Schools established on international quality levels marked the beginning of this movement.”

“Now Mr Gülen is holding the Turkish Language Olympics. This year’s olympics were staged in many of Turkey’s cities. These events strengthen interest in our mother tongue.”

“Mr Gülen said in a message he sent on the occasion of the Turkish Language Olympics: ‘Not using Turkish well is a national sin.’ This sentence alone shows that he is a true nationalist.”

“In this Turkey in which it has now become impossible to speak of even the simplest rules of good manners, the Turkish language drive that Fethullah Gülen is staging is truly important. We therefore proclaim him to be the greatest nationalist. Could it be that this truth underlies the attacks launched against Gulenist institutions in the South-East?”

He received an award from a foundation of which Gülen was honorary chair

Aydınlık columnist Rıza Zelyut, who accuses Cumhuriyet newspaper columnists of “standing behind the Gulenists” and gave testimony at the trial, received an award in 1997 from the Journalists and Writers Foundation of which Fethullah Gülen was the founder and honorary chair.

“I returned it six months later”

Zelyut penned an article entitled “The story of that award” and confirmed that he received the award in 1997. Rıza Zelyut, writing that those days were days in which the country was rapidly forming into cliques and Fethullah Gülen was acting in a softer manner compared to the Erbakan movement, commented with reference to Gülen, “On top of this, he was teaching Turkish through the schools he was establishing in various countries. I felt happiness at this. With this being the case, I wrote articles to contribute towards dialogue and tolerance. These articles of mine were awarded by the JWF.”