Turkey has secured the closure or takeover of schools linked to the faith-based Gülen movement in more than 50 countries, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday, vowing to continue his government’s campaign against the group abroad.
Speaking at an event in Ankara marking the 10th anniversary of the state-run Turkish Maarif Foundation (TMV), Erdoğan praised the foundation’s takeover of schools previously associated with the movement and credited the Foreign Ministry, the foundation and other government institutions with carrying out the campaign abroad. He said the campaign had intensified after a July 2016 coup attempt.
Erdoğan also described the Gülen movement as a “network of treachery” and its schools “dens of sedition,” saying its supporters would become “much more pitiable, much more wretched.” The remarks reflect a longstanding pattern of hate speech, with Erdoğan and other government officials portraying the movement’s followers as internal enemies and using dehumanizing language to legitimize their persecution, while pro-government media have amplified the rhetoric.
Erdoğan has targeted the faith-based Gülen movement, inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who died in 2024, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated Erdoğan as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after the coup attempt in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of orchestrating. The movement denies involvement in the attempted coup or any terrorist activity.
Erdoğan did not identify the countries involved, specify how many schools were affected or say where closures had been complete or partial.
A July 2026 report by the human rights group Solidarity with Others documented the closure, confiscation or transfer of at least 162 Gülen-linked educational institutions in 29 countries, based on data compiled through March 2023. Of those, 131 were taken over directly by the Turkish Maarif Foundation. The report estimated that approximately 7,800 employees were affected.
Since the July 2016 coup attempt, Ankara has pressed foreign governments to close or transfer Gülen-linked schools to the TMV, part of a broader campaign against perceived opponents abroad that human rights organizations have described as transnational repression.
The foundation is the only organization other than Turkey’s Education Ministry authorized to open schools overseas on behalf of the Turkish state.
The campaign has also extended beyond school closures and takeovers to the educators themselves. SCF has documented cases of educators associated with the Gülen movement being abducted or forcibly returned to Turkey from countries including Kosovo, Pakistan, Malaysia and Myanmar. Many Turkish teachers at schools targeted for takeover fled their host countries, fearing arrest or extradition, and sought refuge in Europe, the United States or Canada.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) cited Freedom House data listing Turkey among the world’s 10 leading perpetrators of physical transnational repression in a June resolution. The rights group documented 160 such incidents attributed to Turkey from 2014 through 2025.
This article is republished from the Stockholm Center for Freedom.
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