Where is Paul Williams?
From Gulen Charter Truth.
Did you notice that Paul Williams has been lying low in the last a few months? Where did he go? His notorious website (The Last Crusade) has suddenly disappeared due to some unknown reasons! Before his website disappeared, he had already been inactive since last February adding no new inflammatory and provocative content about Islam, Fethullah Gulen (and his so-called Gulen Charter Schools) and his radical perspective on some Muslims around the world.
The last unfortunate incident in Norway must have scared some people like Paul Williams, Brigitte Gabriel and Daniel Pipes, because in the last a few years they have been doing nothing but fear-mongering with their boogeyman concepts like Islamophobia, radical Islam etc.
Anyway, Paul Williams' The Last Crusade is now gone even though its blog-type version is still active with some funny narratives. For example, he tried to display a kitsch example of yellow journalism with his false article on Fethullah Gulen. He made some weird claims about Gulen: "Fethullah Gulen has established a 45 acre mountain fortress. The fortress remains protected by 100 Turkish guards and a sentry post. Local residents have complained of automatic gunfire coming from the complex and of a low flying helicopter that surveys the area for would-be intruders."
Of course those claims had to be verified by some upright journalists like Dan Berrett of Pocono Record. He published a rather neutral piece contradicting what Herr Williams had to say.
Upon seeing his yellow journalism was refuted by the real journalists, Paul Williams, in his blog version of his website accused Mr. Barrett of being deceived by the sweet rhetoric of Gulen comparing the latter to Hitler.
Those reactions really bug me. OK, you were just exposed and what you had to do was to sit still instead of accusing a neutral journalist who did his best to portray a somewhat controversial figure in the United States.
He was also adept in false descriptions as well. He once talked about Harmony Science Academy, but showed a picture related to Tarek Ibn Ziyad Academy. This clearly shows his biased and hate-filled approach about any charter schools like Harmony Public Schools.
Maybe Paul Williams is busy with the lawsuit McMaster University brought to him. I won't go into detail on this issue. You can find more information on Goose Network website. Whatever the reason, Paul Williams, such a fervent and zealous guy, suddenly disappeared leaving a number of accused people and coined concepts (like Gulen Charter Schools) behind him.
He is more than welcome to return as long as he gives up his old antics!
Did you notice that Paul Williams has been lying low in the last a few months? Where did he go? His notorious website (The Last Crusade) has suddenly disappeared due to some unknown reasons! Before his website disappeared, he had already been inactive since last February adding no new inflammatory and provocative content about Islam, Fethullah Gulen (and his so-called Gulen Charter Schools) and his radical perspective on some Muslims around the world.
The last unfortunate incident in Norway must have scared some people like Paul Williams, Brigitte Gabriel and Daniel Pipes, because in the last a few years they have been doing nothing but fear-mongering with their boogeyman concepts like Islamophobia, radical Islam etc.
Anyway, Paul Williams' The Last Crusade is now gone even though its blog-type version is still active with some funny narratives. For example, he tried to display a kitsch example of yellow journalism with his false article on Fethullah Gulen. He made some weird claims about Gulen: "Fethullah Gulen has established a 45 acre mountain fortress. The fortress remains protected by 100 Turkish guards and a sentry post. Local residents have complained of automatic gunfire coming from the complex and of a low flying helicopter that surveys the area for would-be intruders."
Of course those claims had to be verified by some upright journalists like Dan Berrett of Pocono Record. He published a rather neutral piece contradicting what Herr Williams had to say.
Upon seeing his yellow journalism was refuted by the real journalists, Paul Williams, in his blog version of his website accused Mr. Barrett of being deceived by the sweet rhetoric of Gulen comparing the latter to Hitler.
Those reactions really bug me. OK, you were just exposed and what you had to do was to sit still instead of accusing a neutral journalist who did his best to portray a somewhat controversial figure in the United States.
He was also adept in false descriptions as well. He once talked about Harmony Science Academy, but showed a picture related to Tarek Ibn Ziyad Academy. This clearly shows his biased and hate-filled approach about any charter schools like Harmony Public Schools.
Maybe Paul Williams is busy with the lawsuit McMaster University brought to him. I won't go into detail on this issue. You can find more information on Goose Network website. Whatever the reason, Paul Williams, such a fervent and zealous guy, suddenly disappeared leaving a number of accused people and coined concepts (like Gulen Charter Schools) behind him.
He is more than welcome to return as long as he gives up his old antics!
The First Anniversary of Stephanie Saul's Article about Fethullah Gulen
This time last year (2011), the New York Times published an article about Fethullah Gulen, some cream-of-the-crop charter schools in Texas and the Gulen Movement. That article created plenty of buzz, bringing more fame to Ms. Saul than her days when she dealt with pharmaceutical cases. I guess Stephanie decided to celebrate the very first anniversary of her article by publishing another one this time. Or she was forced to publish this second article exactly on the same date. In either case, I do not see this as a coincidence.
This has just made me curious about the publications on Fethullah Gulen and I made a quick Google search on Fethullah Gulen. There, I saw that in the last 24 hours alone (as of June 6, 2012) there are six articles about Fethullah Gulen and five of them are pretty negative. The only exception belongs to Michael Shank, who bravely wrote the facts about Fethullah Gulen and so-called Gulen charter schools.
Some of these five articles are relevant to each other and it is interesting that these articles have appeared after a long period of interregnum since the 60 Minutes broadcast. It has been more than three weeks since that 60 Minutes talked about Fethullah Gulen and in this time period, I think, the media outlets preferred to be silent to "test the waters". After deciding that they have waited enough, they came up with these five negative and seemingly irrelevant pieces.
If they had published their articles in the peak times of 60 Minutes, they would have remained in the background and their aggressive tone would have probably been dismissed. But now they are more than ready to launch another smear campaign.
Just food for thought...
This has just made me curious about the publications on Fethullah Gulen and I made a quick Google search on Fethullah Gulen. There, I saw that in the last 24 hours alone (as of June 6, 2012) there are six articles about Fethullah Gulen and five of them are pretty negative. The only exception belongs to Michael Shank, who bravely wrote the facts about Fethullah Gulen and so-called Gulen charter schools.
Some of these five articles are relevant to each other and it is interesting that these articles have appeared after a long period of interregnum since the 60 Minutes broadcast. It has been more than three weeks since that 60 Minutes talked about Fethullah Gulen and in this time period, I think, the media outlets preferred to be silent to "test the waters". After deciding that they have waited enough, they came up with these five negative and seemingly irrelevant pieces.
If they had published their articles in the peak times of 60 Minutes, they would have remained in the background and their aggressive tone would have probably been dismissed. But now they are more than ready to launch another smear campaign.
Just food for thought...
What does 60 Minutes Say About Fethullah Gulen
Taken from Mr. Truth's blog on Open Salon.
I watched the famous 60 Minutes segment about Fethullah Gulen and the so-called Gulen-inspired successful charter schools in America.I honestly think that Fethullah Gulen or those charter schools could not do a better job than the producers of the 60 Minutes in terms of self-advertisement.
Later on, I sat down to read some reflections on the program. Among all, Dr. Kurt's article got my attention, because he touched on some nice and subtle points about Fethullah Gulen, the Movement and so-called Gulen Charter Schools. I mostly agree what he had to say with few reservations.
I remember giving some references to some of Dr. Kurt's articles in the past and this is no different from the ones I alluded to. In that article, several topics ranging from Gulen's modesty and humility to his alleged seclusiveness were duly mentioned.
If I were a total stranger to this subject, I would probably laugh at some of the (non)evidence between Fethullah Gulen and those high performing charter schools, because you don't bring evidence to the table by just saying there are connections. Nobody would believe you!
As for cult issues, it was the funniest of them. Cult is a sort of organization founded by mostly marginal people who try to express themselves in a radical and unusual way. But, as Dr. Kurt pointed out, we are talking about a social and mainstream worldwide movement whose members tally millions. So, Gulen Movement, with its supporters from all walks of life, is called cult? Are you serious?
I watched the famous 60 Minutes segment about Fethullah Gulen and the so-called Gulen-inspired successful charter schools in America.I honestly think that Fethullah Gulen or those charter schools could not do a better job than the producers of the 60 Minutes in terms of self-advertisement.
Later on, I sat down to read some reflections on the program. Among all, Dr. Kurt's article got my attention, because he touched on some nice and subtle points about Fethullah Gulen, the Movement and so-called Gulen Charter Schools. I mostly agree what he had to say with few reservations.
I remember giving some references to some of Dr. Kurt's articles in the past and this is no different from the ones I alluded to. In that article, several topics ranging from Gulen's modesty and humility to his alleged seclusiveness were duly mentioned.
If I were a total stranger to this subject, I would probably laugh at some of the (non)evidence between Fethullah Gulen and those high performing charter schools, because you don't bring evidence to the table by just saying there are connections. Nobody would believe you!
As for cult issues, it was the funniest of them. Cult is a sort of organization founded by mostly marginal people who try to express themselves in a radical and unusual way. But, as Dr. Kurt pointed out, we are talking about a social and mainstream worldwide movement whose members tally millions. So, Gulen Movement, with its supporters from all walks of life, is called cult? Are you serious?
Vanessa the Loyal Goose Network Member
Taken from Goose Network blog on Tumblr:
I am very proud to announce the new addition to Goose Network gang. This newest addition will probably complete the final missing part of the big puzzle, the Goose Network, who has been eagerly busy with hatching their eggs everywhere in the Cyber World. Ladies and gentlemen, here comes the final missing piece of the Goose Network puzzle: Vanessa Kachadurian.
(I am not going to put her picture here for privacy reasons. As for her full name, I think it is a fair treatment for her considering that she has by far published a number of people’s full names in her numerous blogs. Besides, I do not have the intention to make her a target in the eyes of other people. This shameless tactic belongs to Goose Network members, not me.)
When I first launched this blog more than a year ago, I published a list of Goose Network members. That list included Vanessa’s name as well. Yet since that time, her name has totally slipped out of my mind. Recently, I have decided to make a quick search after seeing her name on that list again. To my astonishment, the things I found out were really huge. I soon realized that I was encountering arguably the most enthusiastic member of the Goose Network. So much so that, many of my claims have proved me wrong on some issues. Now, I am both hoping to clarify my previous claims and add new stuff here. But one thing is clear: Vanessa Kachadurian is one of the most active members of the Goose Network and she is definitely on someone else’s payroll, because as you will see below, thanks to countless evidence, nobody would allocate such amount of time for something that is irrelevant (or not directly relevant) to one’s life.
Initially I took searching her name very lightly, but as I found new things, I got the motivation to continue and decipher more, because new information was in rapid succession.
The Crucial Information
For this, I decided to Google her name. Writing Vanessa Kachadurian Gulen (becuase she is one of the inventors of so-called Gulen Charter Schools concept, I came up with this comment. In case, the link is removed, you can see the picture below.
She (perhaps accidentally) wrote her name (Vanessa Kachadurian) at the bottom of her own comment, because in order to claim otherwise (that is the deliberate writing of her name) one has to be idiot to inscribe UtahMom on top of the page and then Fresno, California, along with the real name at the bottom. In that comment, I randomly took a sentence and made a quick copy-paste of it and came up with the same exact comment on different blogs and websites but this time under various nicknames such as MD Parent (!) and EducationTruth. It looks like she was becoming UtahMom, Maryland (or medical doctor) Parent or EducationTruth depending on the blog, news or the school she commented about.
She exactly writes the same comment and sometimes changes her nickname. I saw that she wrote the same comment on her Facebook page where she uses her real name in a slightly different way.
I also found out that she was using countless nicknames when attacking what she calls Gulen Charter Schools. She is also constantly giving links to many admiral ship websites, particularly “Charter School Watchdog” website and to her blogs whose link I am planning to provide below.
Her Facebook Adventures
On Facebook (as mentioned above), she has pages of comments along with… guess who? Bill Thacker of Arizona! Surprise surprise, right? Using a slightly different name (Vanoush Khatchaturyan) there, Vanessa has been using this discussion page for more than a year only to give links and write responses to another paid member of Goose Network, Mr. Thacker. Together, they filled like seven pages to defame charter schools. write unfounded things about them but if you actually copy and paste what they have written to a single Word page, it will take more than a hundred pages (actually 113 pages). In their comments they just support each other’s claims but they are not afraid to show their teeth to any “would-be intruders”. It is like this is their backyard to play in. I can’t help but admire their dedication. On another occasion, Vanessa comments on one of Bill Thacker’s posts by thanking him and acting as if she was the first time visitor and did not know much about the info Thacker provided.
Even on Facebook India she writes defamatory things about Erdogan, Gulen etc. She uses other Facebook websites in various languages again in order to represent her true Goose Network spirit. She actively uses ANCA (The Armenian National Committee of America) Grassroots. Such determination!
That is it? Just started! She utilizes her real Twitter account to inform people about some radio programs where Donna Garner was invited as a guest. There, hardliner Garner gives complete misinformation about so-called Gulen Charter Schools. Through her Twitter account, she also helps the Goose Network team defame American charter schools 24/7. Even in the midst of a hot genocide debate among fellow Armenians, she joins the debate with the sole purpose of writing only about Gulen and American charter schools. She sometimes goes too far to use the same aggressive rhetoric to the politicians in Hawaii. Like I said, she is so busy with the comments and other activism she puts on the web that even when there is no comment under any news of a not-so-much-visited webpage, she takes this opportunity to write the same things by employing the artifacts of her copy-paste mindset.
Lawsuits Against Vanessa
I will write more about this comment issue, but let’s turn to another significant detail about Vanessa. Making more search with her real name, I found out that some lawsuits were filed against Vanessa. For example, in one of them, she was harassing adoptive parents who have adopted through Hopscotch Adoptions, an adoption company, as well as other companies and individuals. She reportedly could not pass a home study and wasn’t able to adopt due to her serious mental illness. She is vindictive against anyone who has or wants to adopt. This info was given to me by a friend who got this information from another Armenian (Sonia Vigilante) whom Vanessa hates. However, ironically, Vannessa is not shy to use Sonia’s name (by making slight changes <SonaVigiliante> in her name) to write defamatory things about so-called Gulen Charter Schools. But she uses it only in Soda Head pages like this one. She even illegally uses Sonia’s name when writing a petition to the authorities in Hawaii in order to prevent the opening of a charter school there or she likes something on Facebook on behalf of Sonia. As mentioned above, there are also similar comments under very different-looking nicknames and aliases. Below are the some excerpts from the lawsuit document, which can be easily found on the Internet:
“On information and belief Kachadurian uses a number of online aliases and email addresses including, inter alia, [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Laura Garabadian; [email protected]; [email protected]; Lisa; [email protected]; Ruzanne; [email protected]; and [email protected].”
(I am not surprised that she has so many nicknames and e-mails. You will agree with me below)
“Plaintiffs Hopscotch Adoptions, Inc. (Hopscotch) and Robin Sizemore (Sizemore) bring this action to enjoin and seek damages from Defendant Vanessa Kachadurian (Kachadurian) for her continuing acts of harassment and cyber-smearing of both Hopscotch and Sizemore. These acts are part of an ongoing pattern of conduct against several international adoption service providers that dates back to at least 2005.”
“On information and belief, since at least 2004, Kachadurian unsuccessfully has sought to adopt a child through various international adoption agencies. This included a 2005 application to Across the World Adoptions (ATWA) in Pleasant Hill, California to adopt an Armenian child.”
“On information and belief, Kachadurian retaliated against ATWA after her application was declined by
a. Sending a series of harassing and/or annoying emails and packages to ATWA ;
b. vandalizing and defacing ATWA’s office by spray painting the Star of David on it;
c. vandalizing the home of ATWA’s Executive Director by flooding a portion of her property;
d. vandalizing the car of an ATWA employee by putting nails into her tires on at least two occasions; and
e. cyber-smearing ATWA with claims that it was a “virtual baby broker” and calling its Executive Director a “criminal,” “retard” and a “Jewish Princess [who] love[s] to take your money then lie to you.”
“On information and belief, Kachadurian is of Armenian ancestry, and she disapproves of Armenian children being adopted by “odar’s” (a derogatory Armenian language term used by Kachadurian to refer to non-Armenians).”
Also, take a look at this presentation about Cyber Harassment. Interestingly, when we check out the tags of this page, we come across these words:
Isn’t it funny? This presentation by the law firm alone describes all the characteristics of Vanessa and this is of course no coincidence. Anyway, you can read more about the lawsuit in the file.
WHO IS TURGAY (TUR-GAY)?
Although I did publish something about the person operating behind this weird-looking picture, now I must confess that I was wrong. I thought this person who are posting all these defamatory blogs was a male and Turk, because it was what was said in that profile. It turned out that it was a female and an Armenian! Yes, it was nobody other than Vanessa. How did I arrive such a conclusion? I have plenty of evidence to prove it. Let’s first start with the profiles in both blogs. She says “journalist” in both blogs even though she does nothing more than “Watchdog” style journalism. Besides, her main job is with Smith Kline Beecham. Also, on the profile of Turgay, she considers herself a spy and when we read the above lawsuit, we see that this is a title that befits Vanessa. Yet, considering that she runs almost 15 blogs, a Twitter page, two Facebook pages and countless comments, I doubt she has an office-job. She probably works at home. You will also remember that when I first tried to save the above-picture to my computer, the words “Turkey Gay 3” appeared. Who would call Turkey a “gay”? Considering the historical relations, I assume that an Armenian like Vanessa is a perfect match for this. She was also referring Istanbul as “Istanbulsh*t”. Of course, this is not the only evidence. More to come below…
[email protected]
This is the e-mail Vanessa provides on Turgay’s profile page. In case she deletes it, I took a screenshot. When you bring your mouse to the “email” on that profile page, an e-mail pops-up at the bottom of the page on the left side. This is the e-mail she gets information from her Goose Network friends. You can find many comments made by this e-mail under a number of different nicknames. Turan Akcam is one of them. On the other hand, Lauren Alexander uses Gulensfraud as her user name on Twitter and I know that Lauren is Vanessa herself.
More importantly, she uses this e-mail address along with fake Dr. titles such as Dr. Kaz Kaz (detailed info is given below about the magical word “Kaz”). Or she prefers Gerry Kanavan and Turkish News website to hatch her eggs.
Anyway, my main point to prove my case will be about the fact that Turgay and Vanessa are the same people and the comments that Vanessa puts everywhere on the web are almost facsimile of one other.
Vanessa’s Comments
My research about her comments can be grouped under two categories: comment-based and nickname-based. When I go with the former, it is the same comments under different aliases and nicknames, but if it is about the latter, it is different comments that come from the very same nickname. Of course, there are also few comments in which she (accidentally) used her real name! Now let’s see a few of her countless fake names.
RobJaro is one of her favorite names. For example, on a forum, she first talks about the movie Waiting for Superman and then as a second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth item she only talks about “Gulen Charter Schools” with various links.
On PBS website, with the same nickname, she writes a very long comment that bombs Severson, the author of the documentary. By the way, the comment section of this PBS documentary helps me a lot to prove my case, because it turned out that Vanessa actively operated on that page with various nicknames.
On Huffington Post she uses the same nickname again (RobJaro) only to repeat her same old story. There, I also found another nickname (AdoptTruth) who responds to Robjaro, but as you will see later, AdoptTruth is nobody else but Vanessa. Remember, she is very keen on Adoption Issues and [email protected] and [email protected] are only two of the e-mails she uses when dealing with the adoption issues (see above for other e-mails). By the way, under her adoptTRUTH nickname, she has pages of comments here about the Armenian Genocide fervently debating with other readers. In short, you can see all adoptTRUTH comments on Huffington Post. She either defames (gulen) charter schools or Turkey and she explicitly supports Armenia. But beware, that user name might turn into AdoptionTruth as well at any time just like the one about Harmony Schools on Houston Chronicle article.
RRF1966 is another one I found on PBS website. At times, the very same comment is made by two different nicknames and this proves that she accidentally copied and pasted the same comment under different nicknames. For example, Marcus DiFilippio and Dr. Sacha Goldberg made the exact same comments on the same page (just write these two nicknames one by one and you will see that they both belong the same person. I guess she was in a hurry to write her lies). Anyway, when you copy a sentence from this comment and paste it on Google, you will see that the very same long comment on PBS was made in other websites in a verbatim manner as well such as on AJC under the nickname of Ex Charter Parent and on Texas Insider with the fake name of ProudAmerican. Of course, all these names are nobody other than Vanessa.
Looks like she has some ready-made comments and if the discussion goes very long, she uses those comments, but thanks to Google, same exact comments on various websites can easily be found. This proves that Vanessa has some ready-made comments/patterns that are ready to be published when things go wrong.
RRF1966 opened the doors of new findings to me. For example, in Doni Rodrik’s blog, she openly supports Mr. Rodrik, the son-in-law of Cetin Dogan, a former general that was arrested as a result of Ergenekon investigation. On “Colorado Springs Independent”, where she got subscribed only to make two comments (and never used it again), she mentions similar things, but she bites on granite there, because I had already deciphered the ignorance of her colleague! On “Democratic Underground”, she copies and pastes (literally dumps) pages of comments. Even if the news is about something else, she is brave enough to visit there, too. Recently, she has revived this nickname again only to regurgitate the same old story.
Ergenekon Connections
Another interesting alias she prefers is Ergen Kon, a clear allusion to Ergenekon Terrorist Organization. She is not shy of displaying her sympathy to this underground organization, openly praising the members of this underground network. Ergen Kon can surely be found on the PBS documentary. too. On “Republic Mainstreet”, she has the only comment (like in many instances) under an irrelevant piece of news. On “Red County”, she attacks other people with the same rhetoric. She is so in a hurry that she makes a number of spelling mistakes along with repeated words. There she says “Sweet Group” about that terrorist Ergenekon organization.
Katherine Mortelli is anothet pseudonym she uses, but I do not want to give extra links here. since you have already learned how to find out her comments through Uncle Google.
My second technique to prove that those comments are made by Vanessa Kachadurian is using some keywords, phrases or even sentences to come up with the same comments.
Comment-Based Research
For example, if you write this sentence on Google, you will find out very similar patterns: “Do your research Ex-FBI Turkish Translator Sibel Edmonds.” She sometimes uses different prepositions between the words “research” and “Ex-FBI”. Anyway, in her comments, after writing this sentence, she adds one or two more sentences in which you can find the names of Aland Mizell or Joshua Hendrick and then she puts three or four links that belong to their own Goose Network.
Now, in this pattern, you will see almost same exact comments under different nicknames and aliases. For example, using a nickname AmericanTeacher, she comments on News-Record.com. With the name Ergenekon, she has the only comment on “Unconfirmed Sources”. On Youtube, she uses her oft-used nickname Americathebrave100, while on City Data she becomes EducationTruth. By the way, AmericatheBrave is a very popular nickname Vanessa uses and as can be seen here, she almost reveals her Armenian identity in the discussion within the Paul Williams’ blog.
Sometimes she just gets rid of those amateurish nicknames and “adopts” a fancy-looking one with a “Dr.” title. Dr. Ira Goldbloom (notice the similarity with Dr. Sacha Goldberg above) is one of them. She really likes male names. On the same famous PBS website, she uses the nickname John Carson. Then she transforms into Mark Magill when she complains a would-be charter school to Hawaii government on the Rip-off Report page. Mark Stanton is another name on the Algemeiner comment page. She also occasionally utilizes female names such as Debbie Franzler (also on PBS as well) and Gaia Gul (although I am not 100% sure about the this one).
Same Comment, Different Name
Her repertoire is really immense. She enjoys using Italian names such as Vince DiAlieto and Marco DeFlippio. Notice that the former name was used on an Armenian newspaper’s webpage (What does an Italian “guy” have to do with a charter school on an Armenian newspaper? Three irrelevant things…), while the latter was used under a piece of news about a teacher who previously worked with the Harmony Charter Schools. (There was also Marcus DeFlippio under PBS news as stated above.) Interestingly, within the news where DeFlippio comments, Harmony was shown as if it was the guilty party for the misconduct of the teacher even though that teacher was not working for Harmony when he displayed that misconduct. But when your real aim becomes to defame the charter schools, you do use every means to illegitimately attack them. For example, when an accident happens in front of a charter school, she brings it to the spotlight as if that charter school is responsible for that traffic accident. By the way, those two Italian names are very identical with the first names consisting of five letters and the last names start with D and ends with O (not every Italian last name is like this).
The Magical Word: “Kaz”
Finally comes her “interrelated” nicknames that prove the connection between so-called TURGAY and Vanessa. Since in some of her comments, she directly logged in by using Turgay’s blogs, you can clearly see the link between the comments she made as a blog owner and as an individual. I will continue to use the same magical keywords (Do your research Ex-FBI Turkish Translator Sibel Edmonds).
First, let me write those related nicknames and blogs all together: KazFriend, GulenKaz, Maria Kaz, Dr. Kaz, Kazzy Kaz, Dr. Kaz Kaz, Frank Kaz, Dr. Frank Moore, Frank Morton, GooseNetworkUSA, Gulen is a Fraud… (BTW, I found out that “kaz” means GOOSE in Turkish. Bingo!)
GulenKaz was used by Turgay in this comment. Turgay’s e-mail ([email protected]) appears here. At the end of the comment, like the others above, she gives the list of her blogs. Maria Kaz appears here with the same comment. Kazzy Kaz and Frank Morton (and even American Teacher and CarolineSF) can be seen on the same page. Dr. Kaz looks at us exactly here. It is noteworthy that most of the time Vanessa is the person commenting under the same news, but poor innocent readers don’t know anything about this simple trick and they probably think that they read different comments from different looking people. Even when she becomes Dr. Frank Moore…
Anyway, she transforms into Frank Kaz here and here and we see Turgay’s profile under this comment. Her Twitter account with a Turkish-looking name Ozgur Cengiz along with the picture (a goose biting someone’s back) can be seen in this profile. Interestingly, she feels the need in her Twitter profile to state that she lives in Turkey and she says that “I am a Kemalist and Turkey is my home”. But she can’t speak Turkish at all. Just check those successive comments. She starts with Turkish-looking name Ozgur Cengiz. Then someone replies Ozgur Cengiz highly probably in Turkish. Suddenly she changes her nickname and becomes Marie Lewis. Throughout the conversation Ozgur Cengiz disappears and never appears again and Marie Lewis is the one who provides all the responses. Later in that discussion she accuses other people of adopting American names despite being Turkish. Isn’t it actually what Vanessa doing? Disguising herself in a Turkish name and never speaking Turkish and then accusing those English-speaking people of being Turks and telling them that they need to leave America as soon as possible… Just ridiculous…
(She shamelessly follows my Twitter account, too.)
The comment under the nickname of GooseNetworkUSA is here. Interestingly, one of the people Ozgur Cengiz (a.k.a. Vanessa) follows on Twitter is Genise Harrison, a serious activist about human trafficiking, a subject Vanessa is fond of.
Laurene Peymand
This name belongs to Vanessa and there is even a Facebook page with this name. Her friends are Bill Thacker, West Texas Patriots, Tim Stellar and Robert Spencer, who was cited a couple of hundred times by the Norwegian terrorist Breivik. By the way, this link clearly proves that Lauren is Vanessa just like “Lauren Alexander” (see above). On a Facebook page, she writes something Turkish. I really wondered if she got any help from Google Translate and I came up with this English translation:
Lie, Clinton, smiling Lie. Smiling is worth $ 25000000000 and the owner of all things, even if you watch the news. Smiling fake, just a 5 There are in-class instruction. No college education. Smiling from Ezereum is Kurdish. Gülen hides in Amercia.
Probably she used Google Translate to write in Turkish (just like I did) and her broken (actually non-existent Turkish) can be seen in this English translation.
[email protected]
This is one of Vanessa’s frequently used e-mails (also mentioned in the lawsuit file above) although she does only use it for Armenia and adoption-related issues. But humans err, so Vanessa errs as well. For example on this link, she used [email protected] as a user name and she gives her favorite Charter Schools Watchdog website as a link at the bottom of her very long comment.
I also have to admit that in my previous article, borrowed from another website, the nicknames that were attributed to Mary of Ohio mostly belong to Vanessa Kachadurian. I think Ohio parents are wrong about the source of some nicknames.
[email protected]
She uses this e-mail to insult some Turks on the web.
Meanwhile I sent an e-mail to the officials of some schools Vanessa attacks if any negative comments came to them from Fresno, California. They said they cannot disclose any user name or IP number. But if any negative comment exists, I believe some of them must belong to Vanessa.
Why Does She Attack?
So, here is the final question: Why does she attack those successful schools then? Why does she write so many comments, operate a lot of blogs and attacks people and schools that have nothing to do with Vanessa? Here are my answers:
1) She is from Armenia. She probably can’t stand seeing any Turks in America let alone seeing them working in public schools. She lives in California, where there is a considerable Armenian population and I have found out that recently Turks have organized a cultural festival in California. Some Armenians protested this event, while some of them visited and cried there, because reportedly some elderly Armenians remembered their childhood when they saw the Turkish artifacts and the sound of the call to prayer. I don’t know much about this genocide issue, but an Armenian’s resentment towards Turkish-Americans is no weird.
2) She is probably in contact with someone else (probably from Turkey) who has deep grudge and hatred towards some Turks. Being part of Ergenekon terrorist network, those people are targeting some Muslim Turks outside Turkey and their relationship with some Armenians or certain xenophobic Americans are in good terms. You may wonder if the targeting Turks are Muslim or not and I don’t know the answer of this question, but it has been revealed that some members of the Ergenekon terrorist organization belong to Autocephalous Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate which is an unrecognized Orthodox Christian denomination. Since 99% of the Armenians are Orthodox Christians (at least in Armenia), it is natural for Vanessa to explicitly support the members of Ergenekon terrorist organization.
3) Vanessa, as seen on her Facebook page, during an Armenian Genocide commemoration event, gives a book to Daron McDaniel, assistant for Congressman Jeff Denham, about Gulen Movement written by Aland Mizell. Remember this name? It was one of the key words that I used when searching for Vanessa. What is the relevance between an event about the Armenian Genocide and a book about the Gulen Movement? If there is Vanessa there, we can always talk about some relationship.
4) Vanessa, as stated above, is dealing with a lawsuit right now. She desperately needs money just like Paul Williams who founded a defense fund in his name after making ridiculous claims about McMaster University. This cyber-smearing of charter schools is a good opportunity for her to get extra funding. Maybe she gets her funding from the taxpayers. Remember, I deciphered the financial connections of Goose Network members last year and Vanessa could be one of the beneficiaries.
Conclusion
Vanessa. in the light of all evidence, is working for someone else. But she is just a cat’s paw, because there must be a bigger group or entity operating behind her to provide the much-needed money. This group could either be Ergenekon or those whose names have recently been exposed by Center for American Progress to national media in this report. Since she does not have an office work, she spends all her time on her 15 blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as comments she makes under different nicknames. She hates Turks and therefore she hates some charter schools (which she calls Gulen Charter Schools) where there are some Turks. Now that the truth behind the funny picture above has been revealed, you will remember my article when you see this funny picture.
What to expect next from Vanessa? Of course, after revealing so much evidence and making the things crystal clear, I don’t expect her to deny this. It would be like denying the law of gravity. But, she might make a counter-attack. But I really wonder whom she will be attacking, because I am not attacking and defaming innocent people or top-performing charter schools. She might attempt to delete some of her blogs and comments, if possible.
She will also have to generate a series of brand-new nicknames, aliases and pseudonyms now that I have already deciphered most of them. Or, she will take this as a matter of pride and continue to use the same false names. We will see. Of course, one thing is clear: She will probably label me as a Turk, because this is what she does on the internet as if those charter schools do not have thousands of proud American parents. Meanwhile, if you have more information about Vanessa, feel free to share with me.
From now on, I will closely Vanessa’s activities, comments and her other actions. Now, I am relieved to fulfill my promise to decipher the Goose Network members.
If you happen to see an article written about those schools (infamously called Gulen Charter Schools), take a look at the comments under that article. There, you will see the usual suspect ready to hatch her Goose eggs: Vanessa Kachadurian.
Please, beware of her.
I am very proud to announce the new addition to Goose Network gang. This newest addition will probably complete the final missing part of the big puzzle, the Goose Network, who has been eagerly busy with hatching their eggs everywhere in the Cyber World. Ladies and gentlemen, here comes the final missing piece of the Goose Network puzzle: Vanessa Kachadurian.
(I am not going to put her picture here for privacy reasons. As for her full name, I think it is a fair treatment for her considering that she has by far published a number of people’s full names in her numerous blogs. Besides, I do not have the intention to make her a target in the eyes of other people. This shameless tactic belongs to Goose Network members, not me.)
When I first launched this blog more than a year ago, I published a list of Goose Network members. That list included Vanessa’s name as well. Yet since that time, her name has totally slipped out of my mind. Recently, I have decided to make a quick search after seeing her name on that list again. To my astonishment, the things I found out were really huge. I soon realized that I was encountering arguably the most enthusiastic member of the Goose Network. So much so that, many of my claims have proved me wrong on some issues. Now, I am both hoping to clarify my previous claims and add new stuff here. But one thing is clear: Vanessa Kachadurian is one of the most active members of the Goose Network and she is definitely on someone else’s payroll, because as you will see below, thanks to countless evidence, nobody would allocate such amount of time for something that is irrelevant (or not directly relevant) to one’s life.
Initially I took searching her name very lightly, but as I found new things, I got the motivation to continue and decipher more, because new information was in rapid succession.
The Crucial Information
For this, I decided to Google her name. Writing Vanessa Kachadurian Gulen (becuase she is one of the inventors of so-called Gulen Charter Schools concept, I came up with this comment. In case, the link is removed, you can see the picture below.
She (perhaps accidentally) wrote her name (Vanessa Kachadurian) at the bottom of her own comment, because in order to claim otherwise (that is the deliberate writing of her name) one has to be idiot to inscribe UtahMom on top of the page and then Fresno, California, along with the real name at the bottom. In that comment, I randomly took a sentence and made a quick copy-paste of it and came up with the same exact comment on different blogs and websites but this time under various nicknames such as MD Parent (!) and EducationTruth. It looks like she was becoming UtahMom, Maryland (or medical doctor) Parent or EducationTruth depending on the blog, news or the school she commented about.
She exactly writes the same comment and sometimes changes her nickname. I saw that she wrote the same comment on her Facebook page where she uses her real name in a slightly different way.
I also found out that she was using countless nicknames when attacking what she calls Gulen Charter Schools. She is also constantly giving links to many admiral ship websites, particularly “Charter School Watchdog” website and to her blogs whose link I am planning to provide below.
Her Facebook Adventures
On Facebook (as mentioned above), she has pages of comments along with… guess who? Bill Thacker of Arizona! Surprise surprise, right? Using a slightly different name (Vanoush Khatchaturyan) there, Vanessa has been using this discussion page for more than a year only to give links and write responses to another paid member of Goose Network, Mr. Thacker. Together, they filled like seven pages to defame charter schools. write unfounded things about them but if you actually copy and paste what they have written to a single Word page, it will take more than a hundred pages (actually 113 pages). In their comments they just support each other’s claims but they are not afraid to show their teeth to any “would-be intruders”. It is like this is their backyard to play in. I can’t help but admire their dedication. On another occasion, Vanessa comments on one of Bill Thacker’s posts by thanking him and acting as if she was the first time visitor and did not know much about the info Thacker provided.
Even on Facebook India she writes defamatory things about Erdogan, Gulen etc. She uses other Facebook websites in various languages again in order to represent her true Goose Network spirit. She actively uses ANCA (The Armenian National Committee of America) Grassroots. Such determination!
That is it? Just started! She utilizes her real Twitter account to inform people about some radio programs where Donna Garner was invited as a guest. There, hardliner Garner gives complete misinformation about so-called Gulen Charter Schools. Through her Twitter account, she also helps the Goose Network team defame American charter schools 24/7. Even in the midst of a hot genocide debate among fellow Armenians, she joins the debate with the sole purpose of writing only about Gulen and American charter schools. She sometimes goes too far to use the same aggressive rhetoric to the politicians in Hawaii. Like I said, she is so busy with the comments and other activism she puts on the web that even when there is no comment under any news of a not-so-much-visited webpage, she takes this opportunity to write the same things by employing the artifacts of her copy-paste mindset.
Lawsuits Against Vanessa
I will write more about this comment issue, but let’s turn to another significant detail about Vanessa. Making more search with her real name, I found out that some lawsuits were filed against Vanessa. For example, in one of them, she was harassing adoptive parents who have adopted through Hopscotch Adoptions, an adoption company, as well as other companies and individuals. She reportedly could not pass a home study and wasn’t able to adopt due to her serious mental illness. She is vindictive against anyone who has or wants to adopt. This info was given to me by a friend who got this information from another Armenian (Sonia Vigilante) whom Vanessa hates. However, ironically, Vannessa is not shy to use Sonia’s name (by making slight changes <SonaVigiliante> in her name) to write defamatory things about so-called Gulen Charter Schools. But she uses it only in Soda Head pages like this one. She even illegally uses Sonia’s name when writing a petition to the authorities in Hawaii in order to prevent the opening of a charter school there or she likes something on Facebook on behalf of Sonia. As mentioned above, there are also similar comments under very different-looking nicknames and aliases. Below are the some excerpts from the lawsuit document, which can be easily found on the Internet:
“On information and belief Kachadurian uses a number of online aliases and email addresses including, inter alia, [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Laura Garabadian; [email protected]; [email protected]; Lisa; [email protected]; Ruzanne; [email protected]; and [email protected].”
(I am not surprised that she has so many nicknames and e-mails. You will agree with me below)
“Plaintiffs Hopscotch Adoptions, Inc. (Hopscotch) and Robin Sizemore (Sizemore) bring this action to enjoin and seek damages from Defendant Vanessa Kachadurian (Kachadurian) for her continuing acts of harassment and cyber-smearing of both Hopscotch and Sizemore. These acts are part of an ongoing pattern of conduct against several international adoption service providers that dates back to at least 2005.”
“On information and belief, since at least 2004, Kachadurian unsuccessfully has sought to adopt a child through various international adoption agencies. This included a 2005 application to Across the World Adoptions (ATWA) in Pleasant Hill, California to adopt an Armenian child.”
“On information and belief, Kachadurian retaliated against ATWA after her application was declined by
a. Sending a series of harassing and/or annoying emails and packages to ATWA ;
b. vandalizing and defacing ATWA’s office by spray painting the Star of David on it;
c. vandalizing the home of ATWA’s Executive Director by flooding a portion of her property;
d. vandalizing the car of an ATWA employee by putting nails into her tires on at least two occasions; and
e. cyber-smearing ATWA with claims that it was a “virtual baby broker” and calling its Executive Director a “criminal,” “retard” and a “Jewish Princess [who] love[s] to take your money then lie to you.”
“On information and belief, Kachadurian is of Armenian ancestry, and she disapproves of Armenian children being adopted by “odar’s” (a derogatory Armenian language term used by Kachadurian to refer to non-Armenians).”
Also, take a look at this presentation about Cyber Harassment. Interestingly, when we check out the tags of this page, we come across these words:
Isn’t it funny? This presentation by the law firm alone describes all the characteristics of Vanessa and this is of course no coincidence. Anyway, you can read more about the lawsuit in the file.
WHO IS TURGAY (TUR-GAY)?
Although I did publish something about the person operating behind this weird-looking picture, now I must confess that I was wrong. I thought this person who are posting all these defamatory blogs was a male and Turk, because it was what was said in that profile. It turned out that it was a female and an Armenian! Yes, it was nobody other than Vanessa. How did I arrive such a conclusion? I have plenty of evidence to prove it. Let’s first start with the profiles in both blogs. She says “journalist” in both blogs even though she does nothing more than “Watchdog” style journalism. Besides, her main job is with Smith Kline Beecham. Also, on the profile of Turgay, she considers herself a spy and when we read the above lawsuit, we see that this is a title that befits Vanessa. Yet, considering that she runs almost 15 blogs, a Twitter page, two Facebook pages and countless comments, I doubt she has an office-job. She probably works at home. You will also remember that when I first tried to save the above-picture to my computer, the words “Turkey Gay 3” appeared. Who would call Turkey a “gay”? Considering the historical relations, I assume that an Armenian like Vanessa is a perfect match for this. She was also referring Istanbul as “Istanbulsh*t”. Of course, this is not the only evidence. More to come below…
[email protected]
This is the e-mail Vanessa provides on Turgay’s profile page. In case she deletes it, I took a screenshot. When you bring your mouse to the “email” on that profile page, an e-mail pops-up at the bottom of the page on the left side. This is the e-mail she gets information from her Goose Network friends. You can find many comments made by this e-mail under a number of different nicknames. Turan Akcam is one of them. On the other hand, Lauren Alexander uses Gulensfraud as her user name on Twitter and I know that Lauren is Vanessa herself.
More importantly, she uses this e-mail address along with fake Dr. titles such as Dr. Kaz Kaz (detailed info is given below about the magical word “Kaz”). Or she prefers Gerry Kanavan and Turkish News website to hatch her eggs.
Anyway, my main point to prove my case will be about the fact that Turgay and Vanessa are the same people and the comments that Vanessa puts everywhere on the web are almost facsimile of one other.
Vanessa’s Comments
My research about her comments can be grouped under two categories: comment-based and nickname-based. When I go with the former, it is the same comments under different aliases and nicknames, but if it is about the latter, it is different comments that come from the very same nickname. Of course, there are also few comments in which she (accidentally) used her real name! Now let’s see a few of her countless fake names.
RobJaro is one of her favorite names. For example, on a forum, she first talks about the movie Waiting for Superman and then as a second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth item she only talks about “Gulen Charter Schools” with various links.
On PBS website, with the same nickname, she writes a very long comment that bombs Severson, the author of the documentary. By the way, the comment section of this PBS documentary helps me a lot to prove my case, because it turned out that Vanessa actively operated on that page with various nicknames.
On Huffington Post she uses the same nickname again (RobJaro) only to repeat her same old story. There, I also found another nickname (AdoptTruth) who responds to Robjaro, but as you will see later, AdoptTruth is nobody else but Vanessa. Remember, she is very keen on Adoption Issues and [email protected] and [email protected] are only two of the e-mails she uses when dealing with the adoption issues (see above for other e-mails). By the way, under her adoptTRUTH nickname, she has pages of comments here about the Armenian Genocide fervently debating with other readers. In short, you can see all adoptTRUTH comments on Huffington Post. She either defames (gulen) charter schools or Turkey and she explicitly supports Armenia. But beware, that user name might turn into AdoptionTruth as well at any time just like the one about Harmony Schools on Houston Chronicle article.
RRF1966 is another one I found on PBS website. At times, the very same comment is made by two different nicknames and this proves that she accidentally copied and pasted the same comment under different nicknames. For example, Marcus DiFilippio and Dr. Sacha Goldberg made the exact same comments on the same page (just write these two nicknames one by one and you will see that they both belong the same person. I guess she was in a hurry to write her lies). Anyway, when you copy a sentence from this comment and paste it on Google, you will see that the very same long comment on PBS was made in other websites in a verbatim manner as well such as on AJC under the nickname of Ex Charter Parent and on Texas Insider with the fake name of ProudAmerican. Of course, all these names are nobody other than Vanessa.
Looks like she has some ready-made comments and if the discussion goes very long, she uses those comments, but thanks to Google, same exact comments on various websites can easily be found. This proves that Vanessa has some ready-made comments/patterns that are ready to be published when things go wrong.
RRF1966 opened the doors of new findings to me. For example, in Doni Rodrik’s blog, she openly supports Mr. Rodrik, the son-in-law of Cetin Dogan, a former general that was arrested as a result of Ergenekon investigation. On “Colorado Springs Independent”, where she got subscribed only to make two comments (and never used it again), she mentions similar things, but she bites on granite there, because I had already deciphered the ignorance of her colleague! On “Democratic Underground”, she copies and pastes (literally dumps) pages of comments. Even if the news is about something else, she is brave enough to visit there, too. Recently, she has revived this nickname again only to regurgitate the same old story.
Ergenekon Connections
Another interesting alias she prefers is Ergen Kon, a clear allusion to Ergenekon Terrorist Organization. She is not shy of displaying her sympathy to this underground organization, openly praising the members of this underground network. Ergen Kon can surely be found on the PBS documentary. too. On “Republic Mainstreet”, she has the only comment (like in many instances) under an irrelevant piece of news. On “Red County”, she attacks other people with the same rhetoric. She is so in a hurry that she makes a number of spelling mistakes along with repeated words. There she says “Sweet Group” about that terrorist Ergenekon organization.
Katherine Mortelli is anothet pseudonym she uses, but I do not want to give extra links here. since you have already learned how to find out her comments through Uncle Google.
My second technique to prove that those comments are made by Vanessa Kachadurian is using some keywords, phrases or even sentences to come up with the same comments.
Comment-Based Research
For example, if you write this sentence on Google, you will find out very similar patterns: “Do your research Ex-FBI Turkish Translator Sibel Edmonds.” She sometimes uses different prepositions between the words “research” and “Ex-FBI”. Anyway, in her comments, after writing this sentence, she adds one or two more sentences in which you can find the names of Aland Mizell or Joshua Hendrick and then she puts three or four links that belong to their own Goose Network.
Now, in this pattern, you will see almost same exact comments under different nicknames and aliases. For example, using a nickname AmericanTeacher, she comments on News-Record.com. With the name Ergenekon, she has the only comment on “Unconfirmed Sources”. On Youtube, she uses her oft-used nickname Americathebrave100, while on City Data she becomes EducationTruth. By the way, AmericatheBrave is a very popular nickname Vanessa uses and as can be seen here, she almost reveals her Armenian identity in the discussion within the Paul Williams’ blog.
Sometimes she just gets rid of those amateurish nicknames and “adopts” a fancy-looking one with a “Dr.” title. Dr. Ira Goldbloom (notice the similarity with Dr. Sacha Goldberg above) is one of them. She really likes male names. On the same famous PBS website, she uses the nickname John Carson. Then she transforms into Mark Magill when she complains a would-be charter school to Hawaii government on the Rip-off Report page. Mark Stanton is another name on the Algemeiner comment page. She also occasionally utilizes female names such as Debbie Franzler (also on PBS as well) and Gaia Gul (although I am not 100% sure about the this one).
Same Comment, Different Name
Her repertoire is really immense. She enjoys using Italian names such as Vince DiAlieto and Marco DeFlippio. Notice that the former name was used on an Armenian newspaper’s webpage (What does an Italian “guy” have to do with a charter school on an Armenian newspaper? Three irrelevant things…), while the latter was used under a piece of news about a teacher who previously worked with the Harmony Charter Schools. (There was also Marcus DeFlippio under PBS news as stated above.) Interestingly, within the news where DeFlippio comments, Harmony was shown as if it was the guilty party for the misconduct of the teacher even though that teacher was not working for Harmony when he displayed that misconduct. But when your real aim becomes to defame the charter schools, you do use every means to illegitimately attack them. For example, when an accident happens in front of a charter school, she brings it to the spotlight as if that charter school is responsible for that traffic accident. By the way, those two Italian names are very identical with the first names consisting of five letters and the last names start with D and ends with O (not every Italian last name is like this).
The Magical Word: “Kaz”
Finally comes her “interrelated” nicknames that prove the connection between so-called TURGAY and Vanessa. Since in some of her comments, she directly logged in by using Turgay’s blogs, you can clearly see the link between the comments she made as a blog owner and as an individual. I will continue to use the same magical keywords (Do your research Ex-FBI Turkish Translator Sibel Edmonds).
First, let me write those related nicknames and blogs all together: KazFriend, GulenKaz, Maria Kaz, Dr. Kaz, Kazzy Kaz, Dr. Kaz Kaz, Frank Kaz, Dr. Frank Moore, Frank Morton, GooseNetworkUSA, Gulen is a Fraud… (BTW, I found out that “kaz” means GOOSE in Turkish. Bingo!)
GulenKaz was used by Turgay in this comment. Turgay’s e-mail ([email protected]) appears here. At the end of the comment, like the others above, she gives the list of her blogs. Maria Kaz appears here with the same comment. Kazzy Kaz and Frank Morton (and even American Teacher and CarolineSF) can be seen on the same page. Dr. Kaz looks at us exactly here. It is noteworthy that most of the time Vanessa is the person commenting under the same news, but poor innocent readers don’t know anything about this simple trick and they probably think that they read different comments from different looking people. Even when she becomes Dr. Frank Moore…
Anyway, she transforms into Frank Kaz here and here and we see Turgay’s profile under this comment. Her Twitter account with a Turkish-looking name Ozgur Cengiz along with the picture (a goose biting someone’s back) can be seen in this profile. Interestingly, she feels the need in her Twitter profile to state that she lives in Turkey and she says that “I am a Kemalist and Turkey is my home”. But she can’t speak Turkish at all. Just check those successive comments. She starts with Turkish-looking name Ozgur Cengiz. Then someone replies Ozgur Cengiz highly probably in Turkish. Suddenly she changes her nickname and becomes Marie Lewis. Throughout the conversation Ozgur Cengiz disappears and never appears again and Marie Lewis is the one who provides all the responses. Later in that discussion she accuses other people of adopting American names despite being Turkish. Isn’t it actually what Vanessa doing? Disguising herself in a Turkish name and never speaking Turkish and then accusing those English-speaking people of being Turks and telling them that they need to leave America as soon as possible… Just ridiculous…
(She shamelessly follows my Twitter account, too.)
The comment under the nickname of GooseNetworkUSA is here. Interestingly, one of the people Ozgur Cengiz (a.k.a. Vanessa) follows on Twitter is Genise Harrison, a serious activist about human trafficiking, a subject Vanessa is fond of.
Laurene Peymand
This name belongs to Vanessa and there is even a Facebook page with this name. Her friends are Bill Thacker, West Texas Patriots, Tim Stellar and Robert Spencer, who was cited a couple of hundred times by the Norwegian terrorist Breivik. By the way, this link clearly proves that Lauren is Vanessa just like “Lauren Alexander” (see above). On a Facebook page, she writes something Turkish. I really wondered if she got any help from Google Translate and I came up with this English translation:
Lie, Clinton, smiling Lie. Smiling is worth $ 25000000000 and the owner of all things, even if you watch the news. Smiling fake, just a 5 There are in-class instruction. No college education. Smiling from Ezereum is Kurdish. Gülen hides in Amercia.
Probably she used Google Translate to write in Turkish (just like I did) and her broken (actually non-existent Turkish) can be seen in this English translation.
[email protected]
This is one of Vanessa’s frequently used e-mails (also mentioned in the lawsuit file above) although she does only use it for Armenia and adoption-related issues. But humans err, so Vanessa errs as well. For example on this link, she used [email protected] as a user name and she gives her favorite Charter Schools Watchdog website as a link at the bottom of her very long comment.
I also have to admit that in my previous article, borrowed from another website, the nicknames that were attributed to Mary of Ohio mostly belong to Vanessa Kachadurian. I think Ohio parents are wrong about the source of some nicknames.
[email protected]
She uses this e-mail to insult some Turks on the web.
Meanwhile I sent an e-mail to the officials of some schools Vanessa attacks if any negative comments came to them from Fresno, California. They said they cannot disclose any user name or IP number. But if any negative comment exists, I believe some of them must belong to Vanessa.
Why Does She Attack?
So, here is the final question: Why does she attack those successful schools then? Why does she write so many comments, operate a lot of blogs and attacks people and schools that have nothing to do with Vanessa? Here are my answers:
1) She is from Armenia. She probably can’t stand seeing any Turks in America let alone seeing them working in public schools. She lives in California, where there is a considerable Armenian population and I have found out that recently Turks have organized a cultural festival in California. Some Armenians protested this event, while some of them visited and cried there, because reportedly some elderly Armenians remembered their childhood when they saw the Turkish artifacts and the sound of the call to prayer. I don’t know much about this genocide issue, but an Armenian’s resentment towards Turkish-Americans is no weird.
2) She is probably in contact with someone else (probably from Turkey) who has deep grudge and hatred towards some Turks. Being part of Ergenekon terrorist network, those people are targeting some Muslim Turks outside Turkey and their relationship with some Armenians or certain xenophobic Americans are in good terms. You may wonder if the targeting Turks are Muslim or not and I don’t know the answer of this question, but it has been revealed that some members of the Ergenekon terrorist organization belong to Autocephalous Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate which is an unrecognized Orthodox Christian denomination. Since 99% of the Armenians are Orthodox Christians (at least in Armenia), it is natural for Vanessa to explicitly support the members of Ergenekon terrorist organization.
3) Vanessa, as seen on her Facebook page, during an Armenian Genocide commemoration event, gives a book to Daron McDaniel, assistant for Congressman Jeff Denham, about Gulen Movement written by Aland Mizell. Remember this name? It was one of the key words that I used when searching for Vanessa. What is the relevance between an event about the Armenian Genocide and a book about the Gulen Movement? If there is Vanessa there, we can always talk about some relationship.
4) Vanessa, as stated above, is dealing with a lawsuit right now. She desperately needs money just like Paul Williams who founded a defense fund in his name after making ridiculous claims about McMaster University. This cyber-smearing of charter schools is a good opportunity for her to get extra funding. Maybe she gets her funding from the taxpayers. Remember, I deciphered the financial connections of Goose Network members last year and Vanessa could be one of the beneficiaries.
Conclusion
Vanessa. in the light of all evidence, is working for someone else. But she is just a cat’s paw, because there must be a bigger group or entity operating behind her to provide the much-needed money. This group could either be Ergenekon or those whose names have recently been exposed by Center for American Progress to national media in this report. Since she does not have an office work, she spends all her time on her 15 blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as comments she makes under different nicknames. She hates Turks and therefore she hates some charter schools (which she calls Gulen Charter Schools) where there are some Turks. Now that the truth behind the funny picture above has been revealed, you will remember my article when you see this funny picture.
What to expect next from Vanessa? Of course, after revealing so much evidence and making the things crystal clear, I don’t expect her to deny this. It would be like denying the law of gravity. But, she might make a counter-attack. But I really wonder whom she will be attacking, because I am not attacking and defaming innocent people or top-performing charter schools. She might attempt to delete some of her blogs and comments, if possible.
She will also have to generate a series of brand-new nicknames, aliases and pseudonyms now that I have already deciphered most of them. Or, she will take this as a matter of pride and continue to use the same false names. We will see. Of course, one thing is clear: She will probably label me as a Turk, because this is what she does on the internet as if those charter schools do not have thousands of proud American parents. Meanwhile, if you have more information about Vanessa, feel free to share with me.
From now on, I will closely Vanessa’s activities, comments and her other actions. Now, I am relieved to fulfill my promise to decipher the Goose Network members.
If you happen to see an article written about those schools (infamously called Gulen Charter Schools), take a look at the comments under that article. There, you will see the usual suspect ready to hatch her Goose eggs: Vanessa Kachadurian.
Please, beware of her.
Donna Garner's Latest Flop
Taken from Gulen and Charter Schools website:
In my last article, I said “This will be the last article (for now) on Donna Garner.” Fortunately, I had put the words “for now”, because she has lately written the worst article ever she could write on current Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen, whose name is arbitrarily used within the newly-coined concept of Gulen Charter Schools.
Embellished with so-called fact and figures, this article, entitled “Gulen-Led Coup: Turkey Falls to Islamists”, is one of the most biased, prejudiced and misinformed articles I have ever read about Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Gulen. Since the number of experts on Turkey is very scarce here in the US, those articles, like the previous ones by Donna Garner, don’t generate the rightful reaction it should, because most people are not even aware of the wrong information within these articles. The number of mistakes in this latest article far exceeds the ones in Garner’s previous articles. Despite citing several sources, Garner’s some of claims cannot be found in these sources. It seems to me that Garner has made certain deductions out of some sources, but what is going on inside her mind is a mystery, because to come up with such conclusions out of those sources require a different sort of processing in the brain!
To make long story short, let’s begin our journey on a claim-answer format (my favorite) as usual:
Claim: Erdogan's own choice for commander has now been put in charge of the Turkish military.
Answer: I do not think that Garner knows any of the Turkish military practice or tradition. Established practices in Turkish military have been in use for a long time. For example, it is widely known that the prospective commanders in the army have already been determined until 2020 which means that Erdogan cannot put someone that he wishes. Besides, even in this situation, many journalists and columnists are saying that there are newly promoted commanders that Erdogan is not on good terms with. If a general stands on line, he will not let his soon-to-be promotion captured by another general.
Claim: Turkey's ruling party is the AKP led by Prime Minister Erdogan. He is a Muslim, believes in Sharia law... Erdogan was elected in 2003 and was recently re-elected in June 2011 because working in clandestine operations with the Gulenists, he has been able to control and coerce the Turkish masses through fear.
Answer: There are zillion points that I need to make on this funny claim. Let me put in a subtle way by dissecting her sentences:
- He (Erdogan) is a Muslim, believes in Sharia law.
- Being a Muslim means believing in Sharia law, right? Can we make a generalization here? Do all Muslims believe in Sharia? Are belief in Sharia (or appreciating it) and its adoption as a regime within a specific country the same things? Of course not. They are different from each other, like apples and oranges. A Muslim can still lead a religious life without observing Sharia in the sense of a regime. As for Erdogan, he is a pro-EU (European Union) person and his party (AKP) has made the most reforms en route to the EU. Does a follower of Sharia make such reforms in order to make his country join the EU? Garner becomes funnier day by day.
- …Erdogan was elected in 2003 and was recently re-elected in June 2011…
- Donna Garner skips an election here. Erdogan was re-elected in 2007 with more popular vote than in 2003. 2011 election marks Erdogan's third term in the Office. Moreover, when his party came to power in 2003, Erdogan was not a Member of Parliament (MP) because of the legal punishment he received in 1999. Upon the agreement of the main opposition party, Erdogan was subsequently nominated as a candidate and then he was elected as an MP in a mini-election that was hold in one city.
- [B]ecause working in clandestine operations with the Gulenists,he (Erdogan) has been able to control and coerce the Turkish masses through fear.
- This is the funniest but at the same time the most ignorant one by Donna Garner, who claims that Erdogan was re-elected because he had been able to control and coerce the Turkish society! That is pretty ridiculous, because Garner gives the readers the impression that Erdogan and his party (AKP) wins the elections through oppressing the masses as though there was no democracy and free elections in Turkey at all. Erdogan won the last election in a landslide with almost 50% of the popular votes. Unlike the United States where there are two major political parties, there were three major and 12 minor political parties and plus the independent candidates in the election. Moreover, the turnout of voting-age population in this Turkish election was 83%. In the latest US election in 2008, the US average of the turnout of voting-age population was merely 56.8%. Texas, where Donna Garner lives, was the lowest-participating state, not named Hawai (45.8%), in this 2008 election in which Obama was elected as the President of the United States. Garner absolutely does not know anything about the election stats as well as the nature of the elections in Turkey. She tries to make everyone assume that Turkey is under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein-like man.
On the other hand Turkish election system is based on secret ballot and open counting. How can you enforce someone to vote for the current government in this system? If there were to be such coercive action, AKP should have received at least 80% of the votes. When you arrive at a poll, there are people from all major political parties including a presiding officer. When the voting is over, the ballots are counted under the supervision of all representatives of the political parties.
As an expert on Turkey, I can confidently claim that Turkish democracy is experiencing its heyday after a long period of military interventions and coups that obstructed the development of democracy in the country.
Claim: Now Gulen/AKP/Erdogan have formed close alliances with Russia, Iran, Hamas, Hazbollah, and Syria.
Answer: I really need to learn about the source Ms. Garner used for this claim. She just lists the countries that have some problems with the US, Europe and Israel and she accuses Turkey of having close connections with those countries. Again she shows the glimpses of her ignorance, because everyone knows that Iran and Turkey are not in good terms right now. Besides, Turkey has bought a great amount of military equipment from Israel including some tanks. Despite the tension during the Flotilla, Turkey has never stopped her commercial and military relations with the US or Israel.
Claim: Under Erdogan, textbooks have been changed, Islam has been emphasized, and thousands of imams have been placed into positions as teachers and administrators in the schools.
Answer: The content of the textbooks have not been changed. But there is one real difference under Erdogan administration: since Erdogan came to power, all textbooks have been given free in elementary, middle and high schools in Turkey. In the last eight years, Turkish public school students have been enjoying the luxury of free textbook, a new practice in the history of Turkish Republic. Turkey also provided 24,000 free textbooks to Armenia.
There is no indication of emphasis on Islam within those textbooks. Garner goes further by claiming that thousands of imams have become teachers! If imams are teachers, then who else is leading the prayers in the mosques? The appointments of the teachers are done in a computer-automated system where the names of the prospective teachers are randomly selected in a huge pool of names. An imam with a diploma of religious school is not allowed to become a teacher, let alone being an admin, unless he graduates from the department of education at another four year college.
Same rule goes with the police as well. You cannot show any imam in a police uniform, as Garner alleged, in Turkey unless he graduates from the police academy which is open to all professions as long as you are successful in their tests.
Claim: During the two years leading up to last Thursday, Erdogan and his AKP party have put over 400 people on trial in hearings dominated by Erdogan-appointed judges, including 250 military personnel (almost 10% of their military senior commanders).
Answer: Erdogan-appointed judges? First please give me the answer of this question Ms. Garner: What is the percentage of Erdogan-appointed judges in the judiciary system? Is Erdogan the person who is in charge of the appointment of the judges? Please find the answers of these questions before coming up with any weird claims.
As for the arrested people, they were arrested because they were charged with serious crimes such as making plans to overthrow the current government, creating havoc in the country, deteriorating the relationships with Greece by crashing Turkish planes with the Greek ones and bombing a private museum at a time visited with school kids. Until now, the army generals have been the “untouchables” in Turkey. Therefore it is of vital importance to bring those people before the courts if they are guilty. If there were no crime at all perpetrated by these people, it would take real courage to put forward such indictments and arrest all these top-rank generals. Recently, we have been hearing some confessions from the top-rank military officials as well regarding the true nature of the claims.
Claim: Erdogan is a follower of Gulen.
Answer: In Turkey, almost everyone knows that Erdogan and Gulen come from different backgrounds. While the former played soccer in his youth and engaged in politics, the latter had a career as a preacher and imam and he had no political engagement whatsoever. Fethullah Gulen is respected by various people all coming from different walks of life. People, regardless of their political view and ideology, regard Gulen as a respected and influential person. Among his visitors in the US, you can count Turkish journalists, politicians, singers and TV celebrities with different worldviews. Erdogan, likewise, could feel respect to Gulen or he could also be esteemed by Gulen, but this never proves any connection.
People who admire Gulen could vote either for Erdogan’s party or any other party they wish, since half of the voters voted for Erdogan and his party. Yet this does not mean that half of Turkey is Gulenist.
Claim: In 2008 Endogan ordered the arrests of the people who were speaking out against this Gulen takeover.
Answer: First of all, the spelling mistake in the claim belongs to Donna Garner, who can’t even spell Erdogan’s name. In another paragraph, she spells Erdogan’s name as Enrogan. These three different spellings of Turkish Prime Minister’s name prove that Donna Garner was in a hurry when she began writing her article. She is pretty careless. I am not sure how we could seriously listen to the words of someone who can’t even spell a country's prime minister.
There is a very nice article about the imprisonment of those who allegedly made bad propaganda about Gulen. The article states that there are almost 30 negative books about Fethullah Gulen, but almost all their authors are not behind the bars at all. Here is the most striking excerpt from the article:
One of the most suitable people to satisfactorily answer this question is Ismail Arli, owner of Togan Publishing since 2003. Arli […] published a number of anti-Gulen titles. […] We asked Arli: “You are probably the one person to have ‘touched’ Gulen the most. What happened to you?” He has already responded, remarking: “If whoever touches him is screwed, it should have been me who would have gotten screwed first; I should have been in ashes by now because I have published the harshest material against Gulen. I have published the most derogatory books against him. Even the Cumhuriyet Publishing House is inspired by my cover designs. Nothing has happened to me so far.”
I guess Mr. Arli’s answer speaks itself. I do not need to add anything else.
………….
In Donna Garner’s article, a number of claims also exist about Fethullah Gulen most of which are something prepared specifically for the “Western audience”. I especially emphasize the expression “Western audience”, since Turkish audience would not believe those claims. In order to defame Gulen in Turkey, a different language is used. For example, Gulen is depicted as a man of America in Turkey, because nobody in Turkey would believe the slander that Gulen is fundamentalist and jihadist. Yet it is a perfect fit for the US audience.
Let me present a couple of hilarious claims about Fethullah Gulen by Donna Garner:
Claim: Gulen has groomed his image to make him look as if he is a "tolerant" Muslim, but he is actually a follower of Sa'id-i Nursi, the founder of the Islamist Nur (light) movement.
Answer: Upon reading this claim, any person who does not know anything about Nursi or Gulen would think that Nursi represents the “intolerant” wing of Islam. However, all Sociologists accept that Nursi is known for his non-violent approach. Neither Nursi nor his followers have ever taken up arms or killed someone. Having spent more than two decades in the prisons, Nursi can be likened to Gandhi in terms of staying away from the violence and preferring the peaceful means. Fethullah Gulen, likewise, follows a similar way. There is no report of violent incident or act perpetrated by Gulen’s followers. On the other hand, when listing the intellectuals being influential on him, Gulen mentions a number of them including Nursi. That means Nursi is only one of the persons who had a lasting effect on Gulen.
Claim: Now the United States has a Muslim-friendly President in the White House who has appointed Dalia Mogahed as his Muslim advisor. Mogahed is a Gulenist.
Answer: What is your proof Ms. Garner regarding Mogahed’s being Gulenist? I really dont know how to answer such a baseless claim made in a helter-skelter manner. It looks like the mindset of people who are attacking Gulen is almost similar. Did not Peggy Littleton claim similar things about Obama Administration being described as Gulenist?! Please read the link if you have not tired of laughing at these silly allegations.
Claim: Gulen lives in eastern Pennsylvania with 100 followers who guard him and tend to his needs. His male followers try to blend into American society by wearing suits and ties, and they do not marry until age 50. Their spouses are expected to dress in the Islamic manner as dictated by Gulen.
Answer: The first part of the claim dates back to Paul Williams whose website (The Last Crusade) has mysteriously gone. I think he is busy with the lawsuit McMaster University filed against him. Actually Paul Williams, in his former website, refuted his own claim by publishing a video that talks about the untrue nature of Williams’ claims. There were no gunshots coming from Gulen’s residence. The local Pocono Record investigated the issue and published an unbiased article and consequently refuting what Williams and Garner claim. The neighbors also stated that they heard no gunfire or something similar. One neighbor named Hilda was even saying “They are very lovely people”.
Let us continue with the rest of the claim. Garner says Gulen’s male followers blend into American society with ties and suits. Do they wear something different when they are with Gulen? Pocono Record’s story does not say so. Not getting married until 50 is totally bizarre and absurd. It is untrue for Gulen’s male follower not to get married until 50. Let alone the whole community, Garner cannot show one single example of a follower who has not married until he is 50.
As for the spouses’ dress issue, this is again nothing but distorting the facts. If a lady prefers Islamic clothing, she does this to follow God’s order on this, not what Gulen allegedly “dictates”.
She also depicts Nurettin Veren as someone who is “next-in-command”, but Garner forgets the fact that Veren is now one of the most ferocious attackers of Gulen. He has anti-propaganda books on Gulen, but Garner cites Veren as if he is the right hand of Gulen.
I will not go into the details of Garner’s usual accusations of Harmony Public Schools (Harmony Science Academy) of Gulen Charter School, because in my previous four articles, I answered Garner’s fallacious claims, but looks like she keeps beating the same drum.
...............
There are more things to say about Donna Garner and her baseless and unfounded allegations which qualifies for nothing but a series of flops. But, I do not have such spare time. These examples should suffice to state that Donna Garner now singlehandedly takes the sole lead to write inflammatory, biased, misinformed and unfounded pieces about Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Fethullah Gulen and her other favorite concepts such as Gulen Charter Schools.
I was calling Garner a sciolist, a mild term, in my previous descriptions, yet she is making a fast transition to being a charlatan. I have the gut feeling that Garner writes those pieces just because she has been told to do so. Otherwise nobody would dare to write such fallacious things and draw such faulty conclusions at the expense of tarnishing your own reputation.
What I am curious about is that she sends letters with those lies, misinformation and unfounded allegations to elected officials. Are the officials taking her seriously? If so, they should think twice before doing that especially after my refutations about her claims and assumptions. If an elected official impetuously acts on the basis of what s/he hears from Ms. Garner, s/he should feel the burden of that hasty decision on his/her conscience.
Donna Garner should feel the same thing in her conscience. If she has any…
In my last article, I said “This will be the last article (for now) on Donna Garner.” Fortunately, I had put the words “for now”, because she has lately written the worst article ever she could write on current Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen, whose name is arbitrarily used within the newly-coined concept of Gulen Charter Schools.
Embellished with so-called fact and figures, this article, entitled “Gulen-Led Coup: Turkey Falls to Islamists”, is one of the most biased, prejudiced and misinformed articles I have ever read about Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Gulen. Since the number of experts on Turkey is very scarce here in the US, those articles, like the previous ones by Donna Garner, don’t generate the rightful reaction it should, because most people are not even aware of the wrong information within these articles. The number of mistakes in this latest article far exceeds the ones in Garner’s previous articles. Despite citing several sources, Garner’s some of claims cannot be found in these sources. It seems to me that Garner has made certain deductions out of some sources, but what is going on inside her mind is a mystery, because to come up with such conclusions out of those sources require a different sort of processing in the brain!
To make long story short, let’s begin our journey on a claim-answer format (my favorite) as usual:
Claim: Erdogan's own choice for commander has now been put in charge of the Turkish military.
Answer: I do not think that Garner knows any of the Turkish military practice or tradition. Established practices in Turkish military have been in use for a long time. For example, it is widely known that the prospective commanders in the army have already been determined until 2020 which means that Erdogan cannot put someone that he wishes. Besides, even in this situation, many journalists and columnists are saying that there are newly promoted commanders that Erdogan is not on good terms with. If a general stands on line, he will not let his soon-to-be promotion captured by another general.
Claim: Turkey's ruling party is the AKP led by Prime Minister Erdogan. He is a Muslim, believes in Sharia law... Erdogan was elected in 2003 and was recently re-elected in June 2011 because working in clandestine operations with the Gulenists, he has been able to control and coerce the Turkish masses through fear.
Answer: There are zillion points that I need to make on this funny claim. Let me put in a subtle way by dissecting her sentences:
- He (Erdogan) is a Muslim, believes in Sharia law.
- Being a Muslim means believing in Sharia law, right? Can we make a generalization here? Do all Muslims believe in Sharia? Are belief in Sharia (or appreciating it) and its adoption as a regime within a specific country the same things? Of course not. They are different from each other, like apples and oranges. A Muslim can still lead a religious life without observing Sharia in the sense of a regime. As for Erdogan, he is a pro-EU (European Union) person and his party (AKP) has made the most reforms en route to the EU. Does a follower of Sharia make such reforms in order to make his country join the EU? Garner becomes funnier day by day.
- …Erdogan was elected in 2003 and was recently re-elected in June 2011…
- Donna Garner skips an election here. Erdogan was re-elected in 2007 with more popular vote than in 2003. 2011 election marks Erdogan's third term in the Office. Moreover, when his party came to power in 2003, Erdogan was not a Member of Parliament (MP) because of the legal punishment he received in 1999. Upon the agreement of the main opposition party, Erdogan was subsequently nominated as a candidate and then he was elected as an MP in a mini-election that was hold in one city.
- [B]ecause working in clandestine operations with the Gulenists,he (Erdogan) has been able to control and coerce the Turkish masses through fear.
- This is the funniest but at the same time the most ignorant one by Donna Garner, who claims that Erdogan was re-elected because he had been able to control and coerce the Turkish society! That is pretty ridiculous, because Garner gives the readers the impression that Erdogan and his party (AKP) wins the elections through oppressing the masses as though there was no democracy and free elections in Turkey at all. Erdogan won the last election in a landslide with almost 50% of the popular votes. Unlike the United States where there are two major political parties, there were three major and 12 minor political parties and plus the independent candidates in the election. Moreover, the turnout of voting-age population in this Turkish election was 83%. In the latest US election in 2008, the US average of the turnout of voting-age population was merely 56.8%. Texas, where Donna Garner lives, was the lowest-participating state, not named Hawai (45.8%), in this 2008 election in which Obama was elected as the President of the United States. Garner absolutely does not know anything about the election stats as well as the nature of the elections in Turkey. She tries to make everyone assume that Turkey is under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein-like man.
On the other hand Turkish election system is based on secret ballot and open counting. How can you enforce someone to vote for the current government in this system? If there were to be such coercive action, AKP should have received at least 80% of the votes. When you arrive at a poll, there are people from all major political parties including a presiding officer. When the voting is over, the ballots are counted under the supervision of all representatives of the political parties.
As an expert on Turkey, I can confidently claim that Turkish democracy is experiencing its heyday after a long period of military interventions and coups that obstructed the development of democracy in the country.
Claim: Now Gulen/AKP/Erdogan have formed close alliances with Russia, Iran, Hamas, Hazbollah, and Syria.
Answer: I really need to learn about the source Ms. Garner used for this claim. She just lists the countries that have some problems with the US, Europe and Israel and she accuses Turkey of having close connections with those countries. Again she shows the glimpses of her ignorance, because everyone knows that Iran and Turkey are not in good terms right now. Besides, Turkey has bought a great amount of military equipment from Israel including some tanks. Despite the tension during the Flotilla, Turkey has never stopped her commercial and military relations with the US or Israel.
Claim: Under Erdogan, textbooks have been changed, Islam has been emphasized, and thousands of imams have been placed into positions as teachers and administrators in the schools.
Answer: The content of the textbooks have not been changed. But there is one real difference under Erdogan administration: since Erdogan came to power, all textbooks have been given free in elementary, middle and high schools in Turkey. In the last eight years, Turkish public school students have been enjoying the luxury of free textbook, a new practice in the history of Turkish Republic. Turkey also provided 24,000 free textbooks to Armenia.
There is no indication of emphasis on Islam within those textbooks. Garner goes further by claiming that thousands of imams have become teachers! If imams are teachers, then who else is leading the prayers in the mosques? The appointments of the teachers are done in a computer-automated system where the names of the prospective teachers are randomly selected in a huge pool of names. An imam with a diploma of religious school is not allowed to become a teacher, let alone being an admin, unless he graduates from the department of education at another four year college.
Same rule goes with the police as well. You cannot show any imam in a police uniform, as Garner alleged, in Turkey unless he graduates from the police academy which is open to all professions as long as you are successful in their tests.
Claim: During the two years leading up to last Thursday, Erdogan and his AKP party have put over 400 people on trial in hearings dominated by Erdogan-appointed judges, including 250 military personnel (almost 10% of their military senior commanders).
Answer: Erdogan-appointed judges? First please give me the answer of this question Ms. Garner: What is the percentage of Erdogan-appointed judges in the judiciary system? Is Erdogan the person who is in charge of the appointment of the judges? Please find the answers of these questions before coming up with any weird claims.
As for the arrested people, they were arrested because they were charged with serious crimes such as making plans to overthrow the current government, creating havoc in the country, deteriorating the relationships with Greece by crashing Turkish planes with the Greek ones and bombing a private museum at a time visited with school kids. Until now, the army generals have been the “untouchables” in Turkey. Therefore it is of vital importance to bring those people before the courts if they are guilty. If there were no crime at all perpetrated by these people, it would take real courage to put forward such indictments and arrest all these top-rank generals. Recently, we have been hearing some confessions from the top-rank military officials as well regarding the true nature of the claims.
Claim: Erdogan is a follower of Gulen.
Answer: In Turkey, almost everyone knows that Erdogan and Gulen come from different backgrounds. While the former played soccer in his youth and engaged in politics, the latter had a career as a preacher and imam and he had no political engagement whatsoever. Fethullah Gulen is respected by various people all coming from different walks of life. People, regardless of their political view and ideology, regard Gulen as a respected and influential person. Among his visitors in the US, you can count Turkish journalists, politicians, singers and TV celebrities with different worldviews. Erdogan, likewise, could feel respect to Gulen or he could also be esteemed by Gulen, but this never proves any connection.
People who admire Gulen could vote either for Erdogan’s party or any other party they wish, since half of the voters voted for Erdogan and his party. Yet this does not mean that half of Turkey is Gulenist.
Claim: In 2008 Endogan ordered the arrests of the people who were speaking out against this Gulen takeover.
Answer: First of all, the spelling mistake in the claim belongs to Donna Garner, who can’t even spell Erdogan’s name. In another paragraph, she spells Erdogan’s name as Enrogan. These three different spellings of Turkish Prime Minister’s name prove that Donna Garner was in a hurry when she began writing her article. She is pretty careless. I am not sure how we could seriously listen to the words of someone who can’t even spell a country's prime minister.
There is a very nice article about the imprisonment of those who allegedly made bad propaganda about Gulen. The article states that there are almost 30 negative books about Fethullah Gulen, but almost all their authors are not behind the bars at all. Here is the most striking excerpt from the article:
One of the most suitable people to satisfactorily answer this question is Ismail Arli, owner of Togan Publishing since 2003. Arli […] published a number of anti-Gulen titles. […] We asked Arli: “You are probably the one person to have ‘touched’ Gulen the most. What happened to you?” He has already responded, remarking: “If whoever touches him is screwed, it should have been me who would have gotten screwed first; I should have been in ashes by now because I have published the harshest material against Gulen. I have published the most derogatory books against him. Even the Cumhuriyet Publishing House is inspired by my cover designs. Nothing has happened to me so far.”
I guess Mr. Arli’s answer speaks itself. I do not need to add anything else.
………….
In Donna Garner’s article, a number of claims also exist about Fethullah Gulen most of which are something prepared specifically for the “Western audience”. I especially emphasize the expression “Western audience”, since Turkish audience would not believe those claims. In order to defame Gulen in Turkey, a different language is used. For example, Gulen is depicted as a man of America in Turkey, because nobody in Turkey would believe the slander that Gulen is fundamentalist and jihadist. Yet it is a perfect fit for the US audience.
Let me present a couple of hilarious claims about Fethullah Gulen by Donna Garner:
Claim: Gulen has groomed his image to make him look as if he is a "tolerant" Muslim, but he is actually a follower of Sa'id-i Nursi, the founder of the Islamist Nur (light) movement.
Answer: Upon reading this claim, any person who does not know anything about Nursi or Gulen would think that Nursi represents the “intolerant” wing of Islam. However, all Sociologists accept that Nursi is known for his non-violent approach. Neither Nursi nor his followers have ever taken up arms or killed someone. Having spent more than two decades in the prisons, Nursi can be likened to Gandhi in terms of staying away from the violence and preferring the peaceful means. Fethullah Gulen, likewise, follows a similar way. There is no report of violent incident or act perpetrated by Gulen’s followers. On the other hand, when listing the intellectuals being influential on him, Gulen mentions a number of them including Nursi. That means Nursi is only one of the persons who had a lasting effect on Gulen.
Claim: Now the United States has a Muslim-friendly President in the White House who has appointed Dalia Mogahed as his Muslim advisor. Mogahed is a Gulenist.
Answer: What is your proof Ms. Garner regarding Mogahed’s being Gulenist? I really dont know how to answer such a baseless claim made in a helter-skelter manner. It looks like the mindset of people who are attacking Gulen is almost similar. Did not Peggy Littleton claim similar things about Obama Administration being described as Gulenist?! Please read the link if you have not tired of laughing at these silly allegations.
Claim: Gulen lives in eastern Pennsylvania with 100 followers who guard him and tend to his needs. His male followers try to blend into American society by wearing suits and ties, and they do not marry until age 50. Their spouses are expected to dress in the Islamic manner as dictated by Gulen.
Answer: The first part of the claim dates back to Paul Williams whose website (The Last Crusade) has mysteriously gone. I think he is busy with the lawsuit McMaster University filed against him. Actually Paul Williams, in his former website, refuted his own claim by publishing a video that talks about the untrue nature of Williams’ claims. There were no gunshots coming from Gulen’s residence. The local Pocono Record investigated the issue and published an unbiased article and consequently refuting what Williams and Garner claim. The neighbors also stated that they heard no gunfire or something similar. One neighbor named Hilda was even saying “They are very lovely people”.
Let us continue with the rest of the claim. Garner says Gulen’s male followers blend into American society with ties and suits. Do they wear something different when they are with Gulen? Pocono Record’s story does not say so. Not getting married until 50 is totally bizarre and absurd. It is untrue for Gulen’s male follower not to get married until 50. Let alone the whole community, Garner cannot show one single example of a follower who has not married until he is 50.
As for the spouses’ dress issue, this is again nothing but distorting the facts. If a lady prefers Islamic clothing, she does this to follow God’s order on this, not what Gulen allegedly “dictates”.
She also depicts Nurettin Veren as someone who is “next-in-command”, but Garner forgets the fact that Veren is now one of the most ferocious attackers of Gulen. He has anti-propaganda books on Gulen, but Garner cites Veren as if he is the right hand of Gulen.
I will not go into the details of Garner’s usual accusations of Harmony Public Schools (Harmony Science Academy) of Gulen Charter School, because in my previous four articles, I answered Garner’s fallacious claims, but looks like she keeps beating the same drum.
...............
There are more things to say about Donna Garner and her baseless and unfounded allegations which qualifies for nothing but a series of flops. But, I do not have such spare time. These examples should suffice to state that Donna Garner now singlehandedly takes the sole lead to write inflammatory, biased, misinformed and unfounded pieces about Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Fethullah Gulen and her other favorite concepts such as Gulen Charter Schools.
I was calling Garner a sciolist, a mild term, in my previous descriptions, yet she is making a fast transition to being a charlatan. I have the gut feeling that Garner writes those pieces just because she has been told to do so. Otherwise nobody would dare to write such fallacious things and draw such faulty conclusions at the expense of tarnishing your own reputation.
What I am curious about is that she sends letters with those lies, misinformation and unfounded allegations to elected officials. Are the officials taking her seriously? If so, they should think twice before doing that especially after my refutations about her claims and assumptions. If an elected official impetuously acts on the basis of what s/he hears from Ms. Garner, s/he should feel the burden of that hasty decision on his/her conscience.
Donna Garner should feel the same thing in her conscience. If she has any…
Donna Garner's Self-Refuting Ideas
Taken from Gulen and Charter Schools website:
If you happen to read Donna Garner on a regular basis, you can easily reveal her self-refuting ideas. This is what I have been enjoying for a while. I have found so many contradictions in her statements and claims that I think I could, one day, write a thin book about those hilarious contradictions and self-refuting ideas.
You have probably heard about the contention between Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education and Robert Scott, TEA Commissioner. Mr. Duncan made a few negative comments about Texas education and Mr. Scott rightfully responded to those claims. Donna Garner quoted Scott’s response verbatim in her blog (August 19). At one point of his response, Robert Scott mentioned the existence and significance of STEM education in Texas:“We are also a leader in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. Texas has established 59 STEM schools, 7 STEM professional development centers and is a leading state in creating a national STEM network of states that want to pursue STEM education reform.” Let me interfere here: did you know that out of those 59 STEM schools, 17 of them are Harmony Schools? Harmony Public Schools are the pioneering schools in STEM education with the most number of schools in the state of Texas. Why did I mention Harmony Schools? Because they are the number one target of Donna Garner these days even though I suspect if she has ever been to any Harmony Science Academy in her life. Oops, sorry, she never calls these schools with their proper names. She does rather prefer the weird term Gulen Charter Schools. Which “Gulen” Charter Schools? Those supposedly indoctrinate “harmful” ideas to the kids, have become the leaders of STEM education... Overnight? Two days later (August 21), Donna Garner wrote about Republican candidate Rick Perry mentioning Governor Perry’s “good” and “bad” points. There was something among the “bad” points. Guess what? Harmony Public Schools! “Here in Texas we have 36 Gulen/Cosmos Foundation/Harmony Charter Schools, yet where has Gov. Perry been on this issue?”Did you read out the question? I can’t believe my eyes. Two days earlier, Garner exactly copied Robert Scott’s defense where he mentioned the importance of STEM education. In his response, Mr. Scott was actually defending Rick Perry as well, because Gov. Perry, not Robert Scott himself, was the real target of Mr. Duncan when Mr. Duncan uttered those statements. Two days swiftly passed and Donna Garner started accusing Rick Perry of “harboring36 Gulen/Cosmos Foundation/Harmony Charter Schools.” Hey Donna, you should pray that Robert Scott will not read what you have written about Gov. Perry. Otherwise he would be mad at you.If STEM education suits Donna Garner’s book, she is not shy of using it despite the fact that Harmony Schools are the best representatives of STEM education. If not, Donna Garner would be “brave” enough to accuse Gov. Perry of supporting Gulen Charter Schools.Isn’t it hilarious? I am really having fun of it. You should, too.
Donna Garner: A True Sciolist-4
Taken from Gulen and Charter Schools website:
This will be the last article (for now) on Donna Garner. I have been getting nice feedback on previous articles and I am glad that a number of websites quote from my article.
I designed these articles in Claim&Answer format so that I could reveal Garner's wrong points and fallacies easily. Honestly, I found a number of points that prove why Garner is wrong, but I did not want to deal with each and every fallacious argument, because there were so many!
I will continue to write on these people like Donna Garner, since there are plenty of them who unscrupulously attack on some charter schools and putting them foolish labels such as "Gulen Charter Schools". Most of those attackers are not aware of the fact that the claims and allegations they made are entirely "null and void". Talking to the parents and students, I gathered invaluable data on these so-called Gulen Charter Schools and parents aptly state that there is no religious agenda at those schools. This issue deserves another article; therefore, I leave the floor open for subsequent articles.
I will answer two more claims:
Claim: Waco Harmony Science Academy students, in a celebration in Indian Springs Park, trampled the United States flag (taken from Garner's talk on City on a Hill radio show, dated April 27, 2011).
Answer: When I first heard this claim, I was really surprised, because it was a serious claim that should be taken in due care. Since Garner resides in Waco, she makes the story more convincing. But the "truth has a bad habit of revealing itself one day."
Donna Garner had a couple of mistakes here: first of all, instead of putting such a bold claim and puzzling everyone in the radio show, she should have asked Waco Harmony Science Academy administrators/students/parents if such an incident took place.
I did what Donna Garner forgot to do. I found Waco school's phone number and asked Mr. Kose (Principal) if there was such a thing. He told me that that festival or celebration took place last year, yet Garner presented the incident as if it happened yesterday. On the other hand, there was no such an incident as Garner alleged. Rather, the students carried American flag on their head let alone trampling it.
Principal's explanation seemed logical to me, because if such a vehement event had occured, the public would have heard about it after several angry parents or any other spectators had reported this incident finally hitting the local papers' headlines. Since we heard nothing about it, then we conceive that Garner is doing nothing but manipulation and distortion of events.
Claim: "Gulen Charter Schools" are trying to bring sharia laws to the United States (taken from Garner's same talk on City on a Hill radio show, dated April 27, 2011)..
Answer: Actually, this claim is the reason why some people never take Donna Garner and similar people seriously, because they do not present any solid claim that could make us say "A-ha". On hearing such an allegation, one would only laugh at that and appreciate the sense of humor those people possess.
In the same vein, Peggy Littleton said something similar in nature a few months ago: "I believe — and this is just my own personal opinion, without any factual data to back it up — one of the only reasons the Obama administration is willing to stand in the face of teachers' unions ... by making states adopt charter school rules ... I think that he's doing that because of these Gulen schools. The Gulen schools are the Muslim schools in our country ... telling the kids of the United States of America, 'Hate Americans' and the whole rest..."
There are so many fallacious presuppositions that one really wonders if it is really possible to give a proper answer to that. It is like trying to operate on someone who has had a tragic accident. We are not sure if we can save the patient after all.
As for Garner, she is just whistling in the dark, having no idea of what she is really talking about. Such a claim deserves a sarcastic tone such as "Oh, really? The I must tell the White House, the Army and all other government entities that America is facing the danger of adopting sharia law (!) Oh, wait a minute, this would be useless, since our President is already Muslim!"
Is this what you want Ms. Garner? As a scholar, I do not think that sarcasm would do good to you, but in the face of such ridiculous allegations, one cannot help but produce sarcasm.
Enough said. I guess the best way is to direct our attention to parents and students who are essential part of those schools and at the end of the day what matters will be what those people say and think rather than the baseless allegations of unscrupulous attackers like Donna Garner or Peggy Littleton.
Of course without the absurd label of Gulen Charter Schools...
This will be the last article (for now) on Donna Garner. I have been getting nice feedback on previous articles and I am glad that a number of websites quote from my article.
I designed these articles in Claim&Answer format so that I could reveal Garner's wrong points and fallacies easily. Honestly, I found a number of points that prove why Garner is wrong, but I did not want to deal with each and every fallacious argument, because there were so many!
I will continue to write on these people like Donna Garner, since there are plenty of them who unscrupulously attack on some charter schools and putting them foolish labels such as "Gulen Charter Schools". Most of those attackers are not aware of the fact that the claims and allegations they made are entirely "null and void". Talking to the parents and students, I gathered invaluable data on these so-called Gulen Charter Schools and parents aptly state that there is no religious agenda at those schools. This issue deserves another article; therefore, I leave the floor open for subsequent articles.
I will answer two more claims:
Claim: Waco Harmony Science Academy students, in a celebration in Indian Springs Park, trampled the United States flag (taken from Garner's talk on City on a Hill radio show, dated April 27, 2011).
Answer: When I first heard this claim, I was really surprised, because it was a serious claim that should be taken in due care. Since Garner resides in Waco, she makes the story more convincing. But the "truth has a bad habit of revealing itself one day."
Donna Garner had a couple of mistakes here: first of all, instead of putting such a bold claim and puzzling everyone in the radio show, she should have asked Waco Harmony Science Academy administrators/students/parents if such an incident took place.
I did what Donna Garner forgot to do. I found Waco school's phone number and asked Mr. Kose (Principal) if there was such a thing. He told me that that festival or celebration took place last year, yet Garner presented the incident as if it happened yesterday. On the other hand, there was no such an incident as Garner alleged. Rather, the students carried American flag on their head let alone trampling it.
Principal's explanation seemed logical to me, because if such a vehement event had occured, the public would have heard about it after several angry parents or any other spectators had reported this incident finally hitting the local papers' headlines. Since we heard nothing about it, then we conceive that Garner is doing nothing but manipulation and distortion of events.
Claim: "Gulen Charter Schools" are trying to bring sharia laws to the United States (taken from Garner's same talk on City on a Hill radio show, dated April 27, 2011)..
Answer: Actually, this claim is the reason why some people never take Donna Garner and similar people seriously, because they do not present any solid claim that could make us say "A-ha". On hearing such an allegation, one would only laugh at that and appreciate the sense of humor those people possess.
In the same vein, Peggy Littleton said something similar in nature a few months ago: "I believe — and this is just my own personal opinion, without any factual data to back it up — one of the only reasons the Obama administration is willing to stand in the face of teachers' unions ... by making states adopt charter school rules ... I think that he's doing that because of these Gulen schools. The Gulen schools are the Muslim schools in our country ... telling the kids of the United States of America, 'Hate Americans' and the whole rest..."
There are so many fallacious presuppositions that one really wonders if it is really possible to give a proper answer to that. It is like trying to operate on someone who has had a tragic accident. We are not sure if we can save the patient after all.
As for Garner, she is just whistling in the dark, having no idea of what she is really talking about. Such a claim deserves a sarcastic tone such as "Oh, really? The I must tell the White House, the Army and all other government entities that America is facing the danger of adopting sharia law (!) Oh, wait a minute, this would be useless, since our President is already Muslim!"
Is this what you want Ms. Garner? As a scholar, I do not think that sarcasm would do good to you, but in the face of such ridiculous allegations, one cannot help but produce sarcasm.
Enough said. I guess the best way is to direct our attention to parents and students who are essential part of those schools and at the end of the day what matters will be what those people say and think rather than the baseless allegations of unscrupulous attackers like Donna Garner or Peggy Littleton.
Of course without the absurd label of Gulen Charter Schools...
Donna Garner: A True Sciolist-3
Taken from Gulen and Charter Schools website:
I continue with the third part of Donna Garner's funny accusations and stories.
Claim: The Gulenists had already taken over the Turkish National Police by giving applicants the answers to the exams. If this is standard protocol in Turkey by the Gulenists, I have to ask whether there is any outside monitoring of test security when the Gulen Charter Schools in the United States administer the state-mandated tests (TAKS in Texas) and the SAT/ACT. If not, can we trust the Gulen Charter Schools’ (a.k.a., Harmony Schools in Texas) test results to be credible?
Answer: Since Garner's presupposition is based on a false acceptance, the rest of the questions automatically qualifies for nothing but absurdity. First of all, the first claim is just fabrication with no official court decision or something similar. It is just an absurd claim asserted by the very same underground paramilitary organization (which is called Ergenekon in Turkey) who does any sort of dirty job including taking country's prime minister to the scaffold and dropping bombs in order to create chaos in the country. Ergenekon is a large topic and there are even scholarly articles about it, but as a first step you can start reading from a semi-scholarly article .n Wikipedia. Maybe I can provide more articles in the future about this terrorist organization.
Today I saw a joke on the web about Gulenists with a sarcastic tone. This joke actually summarizes the mindset of those who create havoc in Turkey.
"Reliable sources tell MNN that Gulenists are behind the arrest of Rebekah Brooks, a very prominent British investigative journalist, in a bid to silence the last remaining pockets of opposition both to the governing party and to the movement that now dominates the military, the police, the judiciary, the ministry of interior, the ministry of foreign affairs, the ministry of forestry, the ministry of feeding cattles etc. The arrest implies that the threat is now on our shores.
Sources tell MNN, Brooks was preparing a book on the sinister activities of Gulenists within the British state structures who have relentlessly tried to infiltrate every and each state agency. The police who carried the investigation, the prosecutor who ordered the arrest and the judge who decided for her detention are all believed to be from the movement. It is strongly believed that Gulenist policemen within Scotland Yard have fabricated evidence to get Brooks, a very brave and prominent investigative journalist, arrested. The arrest comes after the detention of two very prominent Turkish reporters in Turkey, where the movement has her power house, back in March. The arrest of Brooks vindicates the concerns that Gulenists are now not only a threat for Turkey but for the globe and even for mankind."
The same vein of the same mentality extends to the United States in order to deceive naive people like Donna Garner and some others so that they could invent new concepts such as Gulen Charter Schools.
As for the alleged cheating in TAKS, this is another vehement claim that puts a number of people and organizations into its target ranging from TEA (Texas Education Agency) and Harmony Schools to countless students, teachers and administrators. Harmony Schools officials say that during the TAKS Tests their schools are strictly supervised and observed by TEA officials. There is no single incident of cheating at Harmony Schools. Ms. Garner establishes imaginary relationships among irrelevant people and organizations. Even if the first claim were to be true, this again would prove nothing about Harmony Schools.
My answer shows that Ms. Garner invents something out of the blue and sensible people (like me) try to correct her inventions (!)
TO BE CONTINUED...
I continue with the third part of Donna Garner's funny accusations and stories.
Claim: The Gulenists had already taken over the Turkish National Police by giving applicants the answers to the exams. If this is standard protocol in Turkey by the Gulenists, I have to ask whether there is any outside monitoring of test security when the Gulen Charter Schools in the United States administer the state-mandated tests (TAKS in Texas) and the SAT/ACT. If not, can we trust the Gulen Charter Schools’ (a.k.a., Harmony Schools in Texas) test results to be credible?
Answer: Since Garner's presupposition is based on a false acceptance, the rest of the questions automatically qualifies for nothing but absurdity. First of all, the first claim is just fabrication with no official court decision or something similar. It is just an absurd claim asserted by the very same underground paramilitary organization (which is called Ergenekon in Turkey) who does any sort of dirty job including taking country's prime minister to the scaffold and dropping bombs in order to create chaos in the country. Ergenekon is a large topic and there are even scholarly articles about it, but as a first step you can start reading from a semi-scholarly article .n Wikipedia. Maybe I can provide more articles in the future about this terrorist organization.
Today I saw a joke on the web about Gulenists with a sarcastic tone. This joke actually summarizes the mindset of those who create havoc in Turkey.
"Reliable sources tell MNN that Gulenists are behind the arrest of Rebekah Brooks, a very prominent British investigative journalist, in a bid to silence the last remaining pockets of opposition both to the governing party and to the movement that now dominates the military, the police, the judiciary, the ministry of interior, the ministry of foreign affairs, the ministry of forestry, the ministry of feeding cattles etc. The arrest implies that the threat is now on our shores.
Sources tell MNN, Brooks was preparing a book on the sinister activities of Gulenists within the British state structures who have relentlessly tried to infiltrate every and each state agency. The police who carried the investigation, the prosecutor who ordered the arrest and the judge who decided for her detention are all believed to be from the movement. It is strongly believed that Gulenist policemen within Scotland Yard have fabricated evidence to get Brooks, a very brave and prominent investigative journalist, arrested. The arrest comes after the detention of two very prominent Turkish reporters in Turkey, where the movement has her power house, back in March. The arrest of Brooks vindicates the concerns that Gulenists are now not only a threat for Turkey but for the globe and even for mankind."
The same vein of the same mentality extends to the United States in order to deceive naive people like Donna Garner and some others so that they could invent new concepts such as Gulen Charter Schools.
As for the alleged cheating in TAKS, this is another vehement claim that puts a number of people and organizations into its target ranging from TEA (Texas Education Agency) and Harmony Schools to countless students, teachers and administrators. Harmony Schools officials say that during the TAKS Tests their schools are strictly supervised and observed by TEA officials. There is no single incident of cheating at Harmony Schools. Ms. Garner establishes imaginary relationships among irrelevant people and organizations. Even if the first claim were to be true, this again would prove nothing about Harmony Schools.
My answer shows that Ms. Garner invents something out of the blue and sensible people (like me) try to correct her inventions (!)
TO BE CONTINUED...
Donna Garner: A True Sciolist-2
Taken from Gulen and Charter Schools website:
I will continue to give answers to Donna Garner’s groundless claims. In my last article, I briefly mentioned the superficial and wrong perceptions and knowledge from Donna Garner, who even lacks the basic information despite continuously labeling some charter schools as “Gulen Charter Schools”. Let's continue to answer Garner's weird claims.
Claim: “I received this note from a local pastor:
Hi Donna,
The local Harmony Science Academy is obviously one of these schools. One of our church families had a daughter there, but the Muslim influence and foundation of beliefs and practices led them to remove her.
Thanks for bringing attention to this.
R.” (Taken from her article on ISD Initiative website dated February 10, 2011)
Answer: A dubious and obscure claim! First of all, there is no name mentioned here. No name of the pastor or Harmony School, having 33 campuses in Texas, is given. Why are you scared Ms. Garner? Do you think people will bug the pastor? Or are you just making up stories?
Looks like she is just making up brand-new stories. Besides, I can also write similar things about any school or any other organization. For example, something like this: “Hi Donna… The local elementary school here is one of these schools where you find child abuse. One of our church families had a son there, but the abusive manners of the teachers led me to remove my son.” Looks familiar right? Here I could have put the name of a famous elementary school and defamed their name.
Also, if there were to be such influence, brainwashing or similar practices, some other parents would definitely pull out their kids and that would hit the local and national headlines as well. Since it is illegal to teach religion in public schools, any contrary practice will put that school into trouble.
Before making an ambiguous claim, people should think twice, because these kinds of claims, without any backing factual data, could leave a permanent negative spot on the mentioned organizations.
Claim: Students in the Gulen (charter) schools celebrate various Turkish Muslim holidays (taken from her Education News article dated March 24, 2011).
Answer: Superficial claims are abound. This was another one I came up while reading Donna Garner’s stories.
According to my research, there is no such Muslim celebration at Harmony Schools. Moreover, Donna Garner displays her ignorance again. The term “Turkish Muslim holidays”, if two Muslim religious festivals are meant (Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha) by this, is something non-existent and somewhat ridiculous concept. Muslims have two major religious holidays and you do not have to bring the adjective “Turkish” in front of the Muslim Holidays. On the other hand, such a celebration requires the witness of a couple of hundred students and some parents, administrators and other community members. At the end of the day, one would leak this “mysterious” and “secret” event to the media, wouldn’t s/he?
All these things point to one fact: Donna Garner is a couple of miles away from the facts. She just makes up the stories and throws mud on people. I would expect her to closely investigate the issue she is working on.
TO BE CONTINUED..
I will continue to give answers to Donna Garner’s groundless claims. In my last article, I briefly mentioned the superficial and wrong perceptions and knowledge from Donna Garner, who even lacks the basic information despite continuously labeling some charter schools as “Gulen Charter Schools”. Let's continue to answer Garner's weird claims.
Claim: “I received this note from a local pastor:
Hi Donna,
The local Harmony Science Academy is obviously one of these schools. One of our church families had a daughter there, but the Muslim influence and foundation of beliefs and practices led them to remove her.
Thanks for bringing attention to this.
R.” (Taken from her article on ISD Initiative website dated February 10, 2011)
Answer: A dubious and obscure claim! First of all, there is no name mentioned here. No name of the pastor or Harmony School, having 33 campuses in Texas, is given. Why are you scared Ms. Garner? Do you think people will bug the pastor? Or are you just making up stories?
Looks like she is just making up brand-new stories. Besides, I can also write similar things about any school or any other organization. For example, something like this: “Hi Donna… The local elementary school here is one of these schools where you find child abuse. One of our church families had a son there, but the abusive manners of the teachers led me to remove my son.” Looks familiar right? Here I could have put the name of a famous elementary school and defamed their name.
Also, if there were to be such influence, brainwashing or similar practices, some other parents would definitely pull out their kids and that would hit the local and national headlines as well. Since it is illegal to teach religion in public schools, any contrary practice will put that school into trouble.
Before making an ambiguous claim, people should think twice, because these kinds of claims, without any backing factual data, could leave a permanent negative spot on the mentioned organizations.
Claim: Students in the Gulen (charter) schools celebrate various Turkish Muslim holidays (taken from her Education News article dated March 24, 2011).
Answer: Superficial claims are abound. This was another one I came up while reading Donna Garner’s stories.
According to my research, there is no such Muslim celebration at Harmony Schools. Moreover, Donna Garner displays her ignorance again. The term “Turkish Muslim holidays”, if two Muslim religious festivals are meant (Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha) by this, is something non-existent and somewhat ridiculous concept. Muslims have two major religious holidays and you do not have to bring the adjective “Turkish” in front of the Muslim Holidays. On the other hand, such a celebration requires the witness of a couple of hundred students and some parents, administrators and other community members. At the end of the day, one would leak this “mysterious” and “secret” event to the media, wouldn’t s/he?
All these things point to one fact: Donna Garner is a couple of miles away from the facts. She just makes up the stories and throws mud on people. I would expect her to closely investigate the issue she is working on.
TO BE CONTINUED..
Donna Garner: A True Sciolist-1
Taken from Gulen and Charter Schools website:
The charter school controversy is going on full throttle and some charter schools, infamously called Gulen Charter Schools, have recently become a scapegoat in this process. After revealing some information on Peggy Littleton, I have now turned my attention to other attackers. Recently, Donna Garner has made some buzz on Harmony Schools in Texas. She has some accusations on so-called Gulen Charter Schools at different internet sources and as a scholar, I made my own investigation with those schools and refuted Garner’s groundless accusations. Her knowledge in those issues is just superficial and she doesn’t even know the simplest facts on neither charter schools nor Harmony Schools. That is why, henceforth, I will start calling her a sciolist (meaning “a person with superficial knowledge”).
Let us take a look at some of her accusations along with my consequent refutations. I will not provide the links about her accusations, but will give the resources that she “contributes” to. I will also use claim-answer format to expose more about her sciolism:
Claim: "I imagine that many of these people (U. S. Congressmen Gene Green, Sheila Jackson Lee, Kofi Annan, Mayor Tom Leppert, Dr. Terri Grier, Texas Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth A. Jones, Bill White, Dr. Akbar S. Ahmed (Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University), and James Baker) help to fund the Turkish charter schools where Islam is the predominant religion." (taken from her article on isdinitiative.org dated February 11, 2011)
Answer: "What an imagination" (!) I should say. The names are so irrelevant that it is hard to find any logical relationship among each other. Besides, Dr. Grier is the Superintendent of Houston Independent School District (HISD). How come an ISD superintendent helps the funding of a charter school? That is ridiculous. Garner has no proof of such funding other than her wild imagination. Besides, if a person shows up at the Gulen Institute, does it mean that s/he helps the funding of charter schools? What kind of correlation is here? Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary, has nothing to do with charter schools. He works for a Speakers Bureau giving keynote speeches around the world. This is pure ill intention to find such a relationship. I don’t want to go over the names separately, but two examples should suffice.
Claim: How would Turkish teachers (many here on visas) teach our American children about such historical events as the Holocaust? (taken from ramparts360.com) How could those Turkish teachers teach American children about the Constitution, Civil War and American History? (taken from her talk on City on a Hill radio)
Answer: Let me start with a question and a simple stat as an answer that I took from Harmony Schools officials: how many Turkish teachers are there at Harmony Schools teaching Social Studies? ZERO. Ms. Garner is so ignorant that she is not aware of the simple facts. Yet, interestingly, she does not bother to ask school officials before she comes up with a conclusion. Please do not worry Ms. Garner. Our American History is told by local American teachers.
Addendum: On the Ghostfighters page, where you can find the same article that I got from ramparts360.com, on top of the headline, a sentence reads: “we are funding charter schools that teach the kids to kill us.” Another bold and reckless claim... Imagine a school where you teach your kids how to kill their parents. None of the students react this! None of the parents, fellow teachers or community members show any reaction to this! Is it possible? If there were such things at these schools, we would have heard this somehow and some way, right? Or at least we would have heard some attempts from elementary and middle school kids to kill (!) their parents. I am ashamed to talk about those baseless claims, but attacking innocent schools with a partisanship attitude is what people like Donna Garner do. I wish we could dwell on more sensible things. By the way, I found that I was not alone. More things could be found on Donna Garner on the internet.
Donna Garner is a rich resource in terms of superficial and false information. She is the embodiment of sciolist approach. I am planning to write more about her false claims and their answers.
TO BE CONTINUED…
The charter school controversy is going on full throttle and some charter schools, infamously called Gulen Charter Schools, have recently become a scapegoat in this process. After revealing some information on Peggy Littleton, I have now turned my attention to other attackers. Recently, Donna Garner has made some buzz on Harmony Schools in Texas. She has some accusations on so-called Gulen Charter Schools at different internet sources and as a scholar, I made my own investigation with those schools and refuted Garner’s groundless accusations. Her knowledge in those issues is just superficial and she doesn’t even know the simplest facts on neither charter schools nor Harmony Schools. That is why, henceforth, I will start calling her a sciolist (meaning “a person with superficial knowledge”).
Let us take a look at some of her accusations along with my consequent refutations. I will not provide the links about her accusations, but will give the resources that she “contributes” to. I will also use claim-answer format to expose more about her sciolism:
Claim: "I imagine that many of these people (U. S. Congressmen Gene Green, Sheila Jackson Lee, Kofi Annan, Mayor Tom Leppert, Dr. Terri Grier, Texas Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth A. Jones, Bill White, Dr. Akbar S. Ahmed (Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University), and James Baker) help to fund the Turkish charter schools where Islam is the predominant religion." (taken from her article on isdinitiative.org dated February 11, 2011)
Answer: "What an imagination" (!) I should say. The names are so irrelevant that it is hard to find any logical relationship among each other. Besides, Dr. Grier is the Superintendent of Houston Independent School District (HISD). How come an ISD superintendent helps the funding of a charter school? That is ridiculous. Garner has no proof of such funding other than her wild imagination. Besides, if a person shows up at the Gulen Institute, does it mean that s/he helps the funding of charter schools? What kind of correlation is here? Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary, has nothing to do with charter schools. He works for a Speakers Bureau giving keynote speeches around the world. This is pure ill intention to find such a relationship. I don’t want to go over the names separately, but two examples should suffice.
Claim: How would Turkish teachers (many here on visas) teach our American children about such historical events as the Holocaust? (taken from ramparts360.com) How could those Turkish teachers teach American children about the Constitution, Civil War and American History? (taken from her talk on City on a Hill radio)
Answer: Let me start with a question and a simple stat as an answer that I took from Harmony Schools officials: how many Turkish teachers are there at Harmony Schools teaching Social Studies? ZERO. Ms. Garner is so ignorant that she is not aware of the simple facts. Yet, interestingly, she does not bother to ask school officials before she comes up with a conclusion. Please do not worry Ms. Garner. Our American History is told by local American teachers.
Addendum: On the Ghostfighters page, where you can find the same article that I got from ramparts360.com, on top of the headline, a sentence reads: “we are funding charter schools that teach the kids to kill us.” Another bold and reckless claim... Imagine a school where you teach your kids how to kill their parents. None of the students react this! None of the parents, fellow teachers or community members show any reaction to this! Is it possible? If there were such things at these schools, we would have heard this somehow and some way, right? Or at least we would have heard some attempts from elementary and middle school kids to kill (!) their parents. I am ashamed to talk about those baseless claims, but attacking innocent schools with a partisanship attitude is what people like Donna Garner do. I wish we could dwell on more sensible things. By the way, I found that I was not alone. More things could be found on Donna Garner on the internet.
Donna Garner is a rich resource in terms of superficial and false information. She is the embodiment of sciolist approach. I am planning to write more about her false claims and their answers.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Financial Connections of Gulen Charter Schools Attackers
Taken from Mr. Turth.
Where does all the money coming from to Goose Network members and their mother ship website? When defaming successful charter schools as Gulen Charter Schools, those Goose Network members use some suspicious money, most probably from tax payers.
A quick research makes it clear that sites operated by Goose Network are funded very well. They spend thousands, tens or even hundred thousands of taxpayer dollars every month to promote their websites. Here is the summary of activities that requires generous funding:
1. Online advertisements. Below you clearly see that Meforum currently runs 329 different ads on Google. As webmasters say, on average one spends at least $500-600 per month for an ad. Multiply 500 by 329 and you get $164,500 per month !! Let's say, even if they spend $100 per add, it ends up to $32,900 per month! Whatever the real number is, it raises concerns of why someone would spend this much on racist and hate oriented ads including the ones on so-called Gulen Charter Schools. You can see a sample on this link.
Online ads against Fethullah Gulen from Meforum. Click here to see all their ads.
2. Paying to writers: You have to appreciate Goose Network Members' efforts. After all, they come up with a lot of deceptive and fraud filled content. How? They pay writers, activists and anyone out there to scramble a post, or an article accusing charter schools or Gulen charter schools, as they like to refer to them. When your house faces foreclosure, you gladly accept any generous offer.
3. Buying people and contributions to various organizations who they managed to fool. How else do you think West Patriots gathered a “team of patriots” who took it to the streets, accusing well-known charter schools in the area? The funniest thing is that those people didn’t even know why they were on the streets handing out fliers on Fethullah Gulen, and screaming about Gulen charter schools (watch this video here by a local TV channel in Texas).
In summary, those hate-mongers and attackers of Gulen charter schools are funded very well. And when you funded well, it is not hard to find needy people ready to do anything inflammatory.
Where does all the money coming from to Goose Network members and their mother ship website? When defaming successful charter schools as Gulen Charter Schools, those Goose Network members use some suspicious money, most probably from tax payers.
A quick research makes it clear that sites operated by Goose Network are funded very well. They spend thousands, tens or even hundred thousands of taxpayer dollars every month to promote their websites. Here is the summary of activities that requires generous funding:
1. Online advertisements. Below you clearly see that Meforum currently runs 329 different ads on Google. As webmasters say, on average one spends at least $500-600 per month for an ad. Multiply 500 by 329 and you get $164,500 per month !! Let's say, even if they spend $100 per add, it ends up to $32,900 per month! Whatever the real number is, it raises concerns of why someone would spend this much on racist and hate oriented ads including the ones on so-called Gulen Charter Schools. You can see a sample on this link.
Online ads against Fethullah Gulen from Meforum. Click here to see all their ads.
2. Paying to writers: You have to appreciate Goose Network Members' efforts. After all, they come up with a lot of deceptive and fraud filled content. How? They pay writers, activists and anyone out there to scramble a post, or an article accusing charter schools or Gulen charter schools, as they like to refer to them. When your house faces foreclosure, you gladly accept any generous offer.
3. Buying people and contributions to various organizations who they managed to fool. How else do you think West Patriots gathered a “team of patriots” who took it to the streets, accusing well-known charter schools in the area? The funniest thing is that those people didn’t even know why they were on the streets handing out fliers on Fethullah Gulen, and screaming about Gulen charter schools (watch this video here by a local TV channel in Texas).
In summary, those hate-mongers and attackers of Gulen charter schools are funded very well. And when you funded well, it is not hard to find needy people ready to do anything inflammatory.
Ergenekon-Linked: Attackers of Gulen Charter Schools
Taken from Mr. Truth.
Addendum: these weird claims about so-called Gulen Charter Schools have been proved fallacious. I already knew the fallacious nature of these claims, but those Ergenekon connections look serious to me. As the articles suggests, why should someone invent a brand-new and absurd concept of Gulen Charter Schools? What if someone decided to establish a charter school named " Gulen Charter School"? Would it be considered a Gulen Charter School as well? I mean the criteria to become a Gulen Charter School are very ambiguous. The unscrupulous attacker(s) should add some criteria in order to qualify a charter school a Gulen Charter School. Not a bad idea, right? By the way, I took this article from Divedu.
A couple of days ago, a friend of mine who is a sort of expert on Turkish political issues sent me a couple of links about Ergenekon Organization, its coup plans and the relationship between Ergenekon people and their staunch Turkish supporters in the US. Those supporters have lately been attacking some schools that they called Gulen Charter Schools. I have always personally wondered why a Turk attacks another Turk here in the US instead of being proud of his fellow countrymen!
After reading the articles linked below, I realized that some ultra-nationalist Turks keep attacking some American charter schools by labeling them with a different name they invented: Gulen Charter Schools. Once you start telling a lie, after some time, you start believing your own lie. That is the case with the Gulen Charter Schools issue and that is what is going on about those people. This Gulen Charter Schools concept has the same fate. No matter what you do, they will keep singing their own song fabricating similar concepts to Gulen Charter Schools.
Addendum: these weird claims about so-called Gulen Charter Schools have been proved fallacious. I already knew the fallacious nature of these claims, but those Ergenekon connections look serious to me. As the articles suggests, why should someone invent a brand-new and absurd concept of Gulen Charter Schools? What if someone decided to establish a charter school named " Gulen Charter School"? Would it be considered a Gulen Charter School as well? I mean the criteria to become a Gulen Charter School are very ambiguous. The unscrupulous attacker(s) should add some criteria in order to qualify a charter school a Gulen Charter School. Not a bad idea, right? By the way, I took this article from Divedu.
A couple of days ago, a friend of mine who is a sort of expert on Turkish political issues sent me a couple of links about Ergenekon Organization, its coup plans and the relationship between Ergenekon people and their staunch Turkish supporters in the US. Those supporters have lately been attacking some schools that they called Gulen Charter Schools. I have always personally wondered why a Turk attacks another Turk here in the US instead of being proud of his fellow countrymen!
After reading the articles linked below, I realized that some ultra-nationalist Turks keep attacking some American charter schools by labeling them with a different name they invented: Gulen Charter Schools. Once you start telling a lie, after some time, you start believing your own lie. That is the case with the Gulen Charter Schools issue and that is what is going on about those people. This Gulen Charter Schools concept has the same fate. No matter what you do, they will keep singing their own song fabricating similar concepts to Gulen Charter Schools.
Gulen Charter Schools Myth Flourishes
Taken from Mr. Truth.
On the internet, the myth about so-called Gulen Charter Schools considerably flourishes lately. Looks like people are starting to believe in the lie they made up!
Fethullah Gulen-inspired schools are non-religious private institutions sponsored by generous entrepreneurs, altruistic educators, and dedicated parents. Using cutting-edge instructional technology and having already demonstrated outstanding academic achievements, many of these schools rank among the most prestigious educational institutions in their respective countries. Each school follows the curriculum of the host country, with the language of instruction is English. The schools provide scholarships for students who cannot afford the tuition. As many people have observed, Gulen-inspired schools are symbols of peaceful coexistence and dedication to the service of humanity. They also serve as an environment for peaceful coexistence, especially in conflict-ridden regions such as the Philippines, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Northern Iraq, Bosnia, and Kenya. (Quoted from Fethullah Gulen: Biographical Album published by the Gulen Institute).
As for some charter schools in the United States, they are not so-called Gulen charter schools. We cannot call these schools Gulen-inspired schools or Gulen charter schools, because first of all there is no tuition charged in those schools. Gulen-inspired schools are private institutions with some considerable amount of tutitions most of the time. Besides, they are continuously funded by aforementioned generous contributors.
Secondly, there is no contribution to these schools from generous entrepreneurs, altruistic educators, and dedicated parents as in the example of Gulen-inspired schools. Those schools are granted money from some foundations such as Gates Foundation and Dell Foundation, but those grants are provided within the frame of certain projects such as Texas High School Project.
Moreover, the officials of these charter schools deny any kind of formal relationship with Fethullah Gulen, who is neither the honorary president of any of these schools nor is he in their PTOs or boards.
As a scholar, I also do not put so-called Gulen charter schools in Gulen-inspired schools category. Those charter schools are definitely outside the Gulen-inspired schools realm.
On the internet, the myth about so-called Gulen Charter Schools considerably flourishes lately. Looks like people are starting to believe in the lie they made up!
Fethullah Gulen-inspired schools are non-religious private institutions sponsored by generous entrepreneurs, altruistic educators, and dedicated parents. Using cutting-edge instructional technology and having already demonstrated outstanding academic achievements, many of these schools rank among the most prestigious educational institutions in their respective countries. Each school follows the curriculum of the host country, with the language of instruction is English. The schools provide scholarships for students who cannot afford the tuition. As many people have observed, Gulen-inspired schools are symbols of peaceful coexistence and dedication to the service of humanity. They also serve as an environment for peaceful coexistence, especially in conflict-ridden regions such as the Philippines, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Northern Iraq, Bosnia, and Kenya. (Quoted from Fethullah Gulen: Biographical Album published by the Gulen Institute).
As for some charter schools in the United States, they are not so-called Gulen charter schools. We cannot call these schools Gulen-inspired schools or Gulen charter schools, because first of all there is no tuition charged in those schools. Gulen-inspired schools are private institutions with some considerable amount of tutitions most of the time. Besides, they are continuously funded by aforementioned generous contributors.
Secondly, there is no contribution to these schools from generous entrepreneurs, altruistic educators, and dedicated parents as in the example of Gulen-inspired schools. Those schools are granted money from some foundations such as Gates Foundation and Dell Foundation, but those grants are provided within the frame of certain projects such as Texas High School Project.
Moreover, the officials of these charter schools deny any kind of formal relationship with Fethullah Gulen, who is neither the honorary president of any of these schools nor is he in their PTOs or boards.
As a scholar, I also do not put so-called Gulen charter schools in Gulen-inspired schools category. Those charter schools are definitely outside the Gulen-inspired schools realm.
A New Fictitious Phenomenon: Gulen Charter Schools
Taken from Gulen and Charter Schools website.
In the last two years, a new trend has been started by some mysterious bloggers later joined by a few self-identified scholars with PhDs. They came up with a brand-new term, a totally new coinage, for the charter school world: Gulen Charter Schools. While the early-bird alarmist bloggers tried to attract people’s attention to those so-called Gulen Charter Schools by claiming that Fethullah Gulen involved in the foundation and administration of some US charter schools, others – specifically the academics – based their arguments on these blogs as if the latter were highly credible sources. Moreover, in an effort to make their claims look authentic alarmist bloggers employed Charter Schools’ open-to-public data, such as tax returns and H1B visa applications which indeed have been scrutinized by local and federal government agencies many times for various procedural reasons.
The question here is what charter schools are and in what sense they could be compared with the schools founded throughout the world by the people inspired by Fethullah Gulen.
According to uscharterschools.org;
Charter schools are nonsectarian public schools of choice that operate with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. The "charter" establishing each such school is a performance contract detailing the school's mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. The length of time for which charters are granted varies, but most are granted for 3-5 years. At the end of the term, the entity granting the charter may renew the school's contract. Charter schools are accountable to their sponsor-- usually a state or local school board-- to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract. The basic concept of charter schools is that they exercise increased autonomy in return for this accountability. They are accountable for both academic results and fiscal practices to several groups: the sponsor that grants them, the parents who choose them and the public that funds them.
Uscharterschools.org also provides some other definitions of charter schools from various independent sources such as this one:
Charter schools are semi-autonomous public schools, founded by educators, parents, community groups or private organizations that operate under a written contract with a state, district or other entity. This contract, or charter, details how the school will be organized and managed, what students will be taught and expected to achieve, and how success will be measured. Many charter schools enjoy freedom from rules and regulations affecting other public schools, as long as they continue to meet the terms of their charters. Charter schools can be closed for failing to satisfy these terms. ("Charter Schools Description", Education Commission of the States, 2005)
These definitions clearly state that charter schools are public institutions owned by the public, operated for the sake of public by using public money, and responsible to the institutions representing the public. They have to be transparent – as dictated by the laws in the US – open to public by providing equal opportunity of enrollment to anyone legally eligible for the application to the school, cannot discriminate even by requiring certain test scores as a requirement for enrollment. Charter schools are operated by contractors for a specified term and the contract could be renewed based on the schools’ performance. They are accountable for their academic and fiscal performances to the institution (state, local school board etc) who granted them this privilege in the name of public. This means the contractors do not really own the schools but operate them for a pre-arranged time period. Then, if the contract is renewed they are good to go; but if not, it turns into a regular, government operated public school overnight.
Academics studying Gulen-inspired schools founded throughout the world by the people who were inspired by Fethullah Gulen’s teachings have coined the term Gulen Schools (or Gulen-inspired schools/institutions) for convenience purposes (see Ebaugh, 2010, p. 96). Although Fethullah Gulen does not accept any affiliation to his name, whether it is people or institutions, it has been useful to call them Gulen Schools. Dr. Thomas Michel describes Gulen Schools as follows:
[T]he schools inspired by Gülen’s educational understanding are not religious or Islamic. Instead, they are secular private schools inspected by state authorities and sponsored by parents and entrepreneurs. They follow secular, state-prescribed curricula and internationally recognized programs. (Michel, 2006, p. 111)
Gulen-inspired schools, unlike charter schools, are private schools financed by tuition fees and donations of local businessmen who pledged their support at school fundraisers that are held on yearly basis. They are open to public as long as students could pay the tuition and at the same time pass a certain qualification test held either by the school itself or – in Turkish case – by the state. For those who are well qualified without proper financial support, there are scholarships such as tuition waivers and even stipends. Moreover, these private schools are predominantly boarding schools where there usually is no option other than living in the dormitories under the tutelage of school administration.
The business circles of the movement are the main sponsors of these schools, supporting them financially until they are able to raise their own revenues through school fees. In each country, the community works in co-operation with the local authorities, who often provide logistical assistance and supervise the curriculum:
Some schools are completely built and funded by businessmen and industrialists, while some are joint ventures between the state and the trusts. The state provides the building, electricity, water, etc., and the trusts provide teaching, the teaching staff, and all educational materials and resources.
Some are eventually completely funded by student fees. They work as non-profitable companies or trusts, that is, all the income incurred goes back to the students again as educational investment (new teaching materials and resources such as books, computers, software; and facilities such as labs, gyms, hostels, residence halls, etc).
Ruth Woodhall says, “Every school has its own independent accountants and accountancy system. They are all accountable to the local authorities (the state) and the trust's inspectors, and comply with the state and international law.”[1] Ian G. Williams adds that the schools do receive summary and unpredicted inspections.[2] On the other hand, a qualitative field research about Kenya's Gülen-inspired schools suggests that the schools have been functioning not only as a secular alternative to religious, Christian missionary schools and Islamic schools, but also as barriers to potential ethno-religious conflict between Kenya's local Christian tribes and its politically empowering Muslim minority.[3]
Charter schools allegedly affiliated to Fethullah Gulen and mistakenly called Gulen Charter Schools have none of the abovementioned characteristics that Gulen-inspired schools display. They are neither founded as private institutions, nor funded by private entrepreneurs and they are not allowed to charge any sort of tuition fee let alone putting enrollment requirements to select students that have promising academic potential. They don’t administer any entrance or qualification test. Unlike Gulen-inspired schools, charter schools have almost no donations from generous businessmen. If there is any donation, it probably comes from certain foundations like Dell Foundation or Gates Foundation within the scope of a larger project or initiative such as T-STEM. The budget of a charter school largely consists of the state money that is paid annually to each and every charter school in the nation. Charter schools also may not make zip code distinction as public schools and more than half of their students, statistics show that, come from disadvantaged areas. There is also no boarding school option as in the example of Gulen-inspired schools. Charter schools are day schools; therefore there are no dormitories that students can stay overnight.
Here remains a question: Is there any Gulen-inspired school in the sense that I have described above? I can say “Yes,” this question. There are indeed handful Gulen-inspired private schools in the United States. One of them is the Pinnacle Academy of Northern Virginia (DC metropolitan area). Lately they have attracted the attention of the national and international media after President Obama hosted Inaugural White House Science Fair. Pinnacle team developed a digital and three-dimensional model of “Yeshilist,” an imaginary city that anticipates the accommodation needs of citizens who lose their homes during an earthquake and they introduced their project to President Obama at the White House.
Another Gulen-inspired school is Brooklyn Amity School, a well-known school by its achievements at some of the top academic competitions such as Science Olympiad, Math Contests, Robotics Competitions, Art Contests, and Future City Engineering competition.
I guess there are five or six Gulen-inspired schools in the US and those schools have no connection with some other charter schools called mistakenly Gulen Charter Schools. As I stated in my article entitled Gulen Charter Schools, the fact that some people inspired by Fethullah Gulen work for a charter school does not necessarily make this school a Gulen Charter School.
Finally, I need to reiterate the fact that we should definitely make a distinction and put some space between Gulen-inspired schools and the non-existent concept of Gulen Charter Schools mistakenly claimed by some alarmist bloggers. I have described the nature of Gulen-inspired schools and their main differences from US charter schools. I hope self-proclaimed academics won’t fall into the trap of mistakenly-coined Gulen Charter Schools concept again.
[1] Ruth Woodhall, “Organizing the Organization, Educating the Educators: An Examination of Fethullah Gulen’s Teaching and the Membership of the Movement, delivered during "Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gulen Movement in Thought and Practice" conference, Rice University, 12-13 November, 2005, pp.3-4
[2] Ian G. Williams, “An Absent Influence? The Nurcu/Fetullah Gulen Movements in Turkish Islam and Their Potential Influence upon European Islam and Global Education”, delivered during "Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gulen Movement in Thought and Practice" conference, Rice University, 12-13 November, 2005, pp.8.
[3] Mehmet Kalyoncu, “Gulen-inspired Schools in the East Africa: Secular Alternative in Kenya and Pragmatist Approach to Development in Uganda”, delivered during "Islam in the Age of Global Challenges: Alternative Perspectives of the Gulen Movement" conference on November 14-15, 2008, Georgetown University, p.1
In the last two years, a new trend has been started by some mysterious bloggers later joined by a few self-identified scholars with PhDs. They came up with a brand-new term, a totally new coinage, for the charter school world: Gulen Charter Schools. While the early-bird alarmist bloggers tried to attract people’s attention to those so-called Gulen Charter Schools by claiming that Fethullah Gulen involved in the foundation and administration of some US charter schools, others – specifically the academics – based their arguments on these blogs as if the latter were highly credible sources. Moreover, in an effort to make their claims look authentic alarmist bloggers employed Charter Schools’ open-to-public data, such as tax returns and H1B visa applications which indeed have been scrutinized by local and federal government agencies many times for various procedural reasons.
The question here is what charter schools are and in what sense they could be compared with the schools founded throughout the world by the people inspired by Fethullah Gulen.
According to uscharterschools.org;
Charter schools are nonsectarian public schools of choice that operate with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. The "charter" establishing each such school is a performance contract detailing the school's mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. The length of time for which charters are granted varies, but most are granted for 3-5 years. At the end of the term, the entity granting the charter may renew the school's contract. Charter schools are accountable to their sponsor-- usually a state or local school board-- to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract. The basic concept of charter schools is that they exercise increased autonomy in return for this accountability. They are accountable for both academic results and fiscal practices to several groups: the sponsor that grants them, the parents who choose them and the public that funds them.
Uscharterschools.org also provides some other definitions of charter schools from various independent sources such as this one:
Charter schools are semi-autonomous public schools, founded by educators, parents, community groups or private organizations that operate under a written contract with a state, district or other entity. This contract, or charter, details how the school will be organized and managed, what students will be taught and expected to achieve, and how success will be measured. Many charter schools enjoy freedom from rules and regulations affecting other public schools, as long as they continue to meet the terms of their charters. Charter schools can be closed for failing to satisfy these terms. ("Charter Schools Description", Education Commission of the States, 2005)
These definitions clearly state that charter schools are public institutions owned by the public, operated for the sake of public by using public money, and responsible to the institutions representing the public. They have to be transparent – as dictated by the laws in the US – open to public by providing equal opportunity of enrollment to anyone legally eligible for the application to the school, cannot discriminate even by requiring certain test scores as a requirement for enrollment. Charter schools are operated by contractors for a specified term and the contract could be renewed based on the schools’ performance. They are accountable for their academic and fiscal performances to the institution (state, local school board etc) who granted them this privilege in the name of public. This means the contractors do not really own the schools but operate them for a pre-arranged time period. Then, if the contract is renewed they are good to go; but if not, it turns into a regular, government operated public school overnight.
Academics studying Gulen-inspired schools founded throughout the world by the people who were inspired by Fethullah Gulen’s teachings have coined the term Gulen Schools (or Gulen-inspired schools/institutions) for convenience purposes (see Ebaugh, 2010, p. 96). Although Fethullah Gulen does not accept any affiliation to his name, whether it is people or institutions, it has been useful to call them Gulen Schools. Dr. Thomas Michel describes Gulen Schools as follows:
[T]he schools inspired by Gülen’s educational understanding are not religious or Islamic. Instead, they are secular private schools inspected by state authorities and sponsored by parents and entrepreneurs. They follow secular, state-prescribed curricula and internationally recognized programs. (Michel, 2006, p. 111)
Gulen-inspired schools, unlike charter schools, are private schools financed by tuition fees and donations of local businessmen who pledged their support at school fundraisers that are held on yearly basis. They are open to public as long as students could pay the tuition and at the same time pass a certain qualification test held either by the school itself or – in Turkish case – by the state. For those who are well qualified without proper financial support, there are scholarships such as tuition waivers and even stipends. Moreover, these private schools are predominantly boarding schools where there usually is no option other than living in the dormitories under the tutelage of school administration.
The business circles of the movement are the main sponsors of these schools, supporting them financially until they are able to raise their own revenues through school fees. In each country, the community works in co-operation with the local authorities, who often provide logistical assistance and supervise the curriculum:
Some schools are completely built and funded by businessmen and industrialists, while some are joint ventures between the state and the trusts. The state provides the building, electricity, water, etc., and the trusts provide teaching, the teaching staff, and all educational materials and resources.
Some are eventually completely funded by student fees. They work as non-profitable companies or trusts, that is, all the income incurred goes back to the students again as educational investment (new teaching materials and resources such as books, computers, software; and facilities such as labs, gyms, hostels, residence halls, etc).
Ruth Woodhall says, “Every school has its own independent accountants and accountancy system. They are all accountable to the local authorities (the state) and the trust's inspectors, and comply with the state and international law.”[1] Ian G. Williams adds that the schools do receive summary and unpredicted inspections.[2] On the other hand, a qualitative field research about Kenya's Gülen-inspired schools suggests that the schools have been functioning not only as a secular alternative to religious, Christian missionary schools and Islamic schools, but also as barriers to potential ethno-religious conflict between Kenya's local Christian tribes and its politically empowering Muslim minority.[3]
Charter schools allegedly affiliated to Fethullah Gulen and mistakenly called Gulen Charter Schools have none of the abovementioned characteristics that Gulen-inspired schools display. They are neither founded as private institutions, nor funded by private entrepreneurs and they are not allowed to charge any sort of tuition fee let alone putting enrollment requirements to select students that have promising academic potential. They don’t administer any entrance or qualification test. Unlike Gulen-inspired schools, charter schools have almost no donations from generous businessmen. If there is any donation, it probably comes from certain foundations like Dell Foundation or Gates Foundation within the scope of a larger project or initiative such as T-STEM. The budget of a charter school largely consists of the state money that is paid annually to each and every charter school in the nation. Charter schools also may not make zip code distinction as public schools and more than half of their students, statistics show that, come from disadvantaged areas. There is also no boarding school option as in the example of Gulen-inspired schools. Charter schools are day schools; therefore there are no dormitories that students can stay overnight.
Here remains a question: Is there any Gulen-inspired school in the sense that I have described above? I can say “Yes,” this question. There are indeed handful Gulen-inspired private schools in the United States. One of them is the Pinnacle Academy of Northern Virginia (DC metropolitan area). Lately they have attracted the attention of the national and international media after President Obama hosted Inaugural White House Science Fair. Pinnacle team developed a digital and three-dimensional model of “Yeshilist,” an imaginary city that anticipates the accommodation needs of citizens who lose their homes during an earthquake and they introduced their project to President Obama at the White House.
Another Gulen-inspired school is Brooklyn Amity School, a well-known school by its achievements at some of the top academic competitions such as Science Olympiad, Math Contests, Robotics Competitions, Art Contests, and Future City Engineering competition.
I guess there are five or six Gulen-inspired schools in the US and those schools have no connection with some other charter schools called mistakenly Gulen Charter Schools. As I stated in my article entitled Gulen Charter Schools, the fact that some people inspired by Fethullah Gulen work for a charter school does not necessarily make this school a Gulen Charter School.
Finally, I need to reiterate the fact that we should definitely make a distinction and put some space between Gulen-inspired schools and the non-existent concept of Gulen Charter Schools mistakenly claimed by some alarmist bloggers. I have described the nature of Gulen-inspired schools and their main differences from US charter schools. I hope self-proclaimed academics won’t fall into the trap of mistakenly-coined Gulen Charter Schools concept again.
[1] Ruth Woodhall, “Organizing the Organization, Educating the Educators: An Examination of Fethullah Gulen’s Teaching and the Membership of the Movement, delivered during "Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gulen Movement in Thought and Practice" conference, Rice University, 12-13 November, 2005, pp.3-4
[2] Ian G. Williams, “An Absent Influence? The Nurcu/Fetullah Gulen Movements in Turkish Islam and Their Potential Influence upon European Islam and Global Education”, delivered during "Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gulen Movement in Thought and Practice" conference, Rice University, 12-13 November, 2005, pp.8.
[3] Mehmet Kalyoncu, “Gulen-inspired Schools in the East Africa: Secular Alternative in Kenya and Pragmatist Approach to Development in Uganda”, delivered during "Islam in the Age of Global Challenges: Alternative Perspectives of the Gulen Movement" conference on November 14-15, 2008, Georgetown University, p.1
A Vivid Example of Putting Foolish Labels
Taken from Harmony Parent website.
A recent article on Leave Charters Alone grabbed my attention about charter schools, their relative accomplishments within their short history and the baseless attacks on these schools some of which have been deliberately labeled as Gulen Charter Schools.
Author starts his/her article with an allusion to the recent movie (Waiting for Superman) about charter schools: Stories related to charter schools and their self-described movement has lately been featured in the media probably more than it has been for the past five years combined. This increase in public attention is indebted to many factors such as dedication of updated resources to the movement by the Obama administration and the latest documentary by Oscar winning director Davis Guggenheim, “Waiting for ‘Superman’”. As it has been the case wherever money is involved, the issue stirred a hot debate, emotions ranging from characterizing charter schools as the new savior of the broken education system to the latest demons to hijack money from our much-needy schools.
… The charters that achieved the reputation of being “high-performing” paved their success in this “high-accountability” period. Today there are dozens of these schools such as nationwide KIPP schools, California’s Green Dot public schools, Texas’ Harmony public schools or New York’s Harlem Success Academy. These charters have long track records and are subject to increasing public scrutiny.
After giving a few reasons for the students re-entering traditional public school system, the author unfolds a recent misconception about a group of charter schools: On August 17, 2010, USA Today ran a story on Texas’ acclaimed Harmony Public School. In the article, Ed Fuller, a University of Texas-Austin researcher, was quoted “It’s not hard to be ‘Exemplary’ if you lose all the kids who aren’t performing” (www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-17-turkishfinal17_CV_N.htm).
More than one month later Harmony was featured on Texas Tribune on September 27, 2010 with a title “What Drives High Achievement At Harmony Charters?” (www.texastribune.org/texas-education/texas-education-agency/what-drives-high-achievement-at-harmony-charters-/). This time Fuller conceded that the percentage (Fuller reported the network’s attrition rate as 50% in USA Today) was merely an estimate based on an informal review of high school-level data, not a comprehensive study. Fuller also said that he did not find that the students who left had significantly lower test scores than those who stayed. This is an example of the same account reported in two completely different ways.
How come a researcher like Ed Fuller falls into the trap of declaring unverified data? Is it because of some sort of pressure on him to publish those bogus data? Or is it something else that we don’t know? Why did he make his claims so confidently on national level and then pulled in his horns on statewide level? Besides, which data are we going to trust from now on? What is worse, there are substantial amount of people basing their accusations and attacks on these unverified facts, using such data or similar ones to attack certain charter schools and label them ‘Gulen Charter Schools’. This ‘Gulen Charter School’ concept, by the way, has recently become a popular tag. There are plenty of amateur free-to-buy websites and blogs that have started an unprecedented smear campaign on so-called Gulen Charter Schools. It is not easy task to determine their main causes, because, so far, in charter movement history, no such smear campaign has launched on any charter school group with all various blogs and amateur websites. Ironically, this campaign is performed against one of the most successful charter school chains in Texas or in any other state. It is also not fair to call these schools “Gulen Charter Schools” giving credit to Fethullah Gulen who repeatedly insisted that he has no ties with these schools in any way (see the same USA Today article). If there is a success story, it belongs to teachers, parents, administrators and of course the students of these schools. We should refrain from putting simplistic labels such as Gulen Charter Schools.
On one occasion, I saw a mini-article claiming that Math-Count is a Gulenist organization. That is just plain ignorance, not knowing the years-long American tradition. When you combine your ill-intention with utterly ignorant approach, you just come up with nothing but some embarrassment. How can someone be filled with so much hatred and ignorance at the same time? Like I said above, it is not easy to find out the main motives of people attacking charter schools and labeling them with something (Gulen Charter Schools) Americans have never heard until recently. Maybe this labeling (Gulen Charter Schools) is the 21st century version of a new opposition in American society. We have already wasted the 20th century with labeling people, groups and organizations and this century will put the burden on the shoulders of those labeled ones: get rid of your “Gulen Charter School” or any other label if you can!
After seeing Ed Fuller’s initial accusation and subsequent deflation, I wonder if other accusations of those attackers (on the same blogs) are the products of same helter-skelter approach. The attacks and accusations are solely based on rumors with no academic credibility. At the end of the day, it is curious to know the thing operating behind the curtain. Are “Gulen Charter School” attackers doing this just because they are against charter schools or they really care about our children’s education or they want to add more fuel to their Gulen antagonism? Throughout the history, seemingly innocent intentions have turned out to be a part of a bigger plan.
To make long story short, having served and positively changed the lives of hundreds and thousands of children, charter schools, just like any other schools, deserve to get rid of foolish labels put by clumsy researchers and ill-intentioned people.
A recent article on Leave Charters Alone grabbed my attention about charter schools, their relative accomplishments within their short history and the baseless attacks on these schools some of which have been deliberately labeled as Gulen Charter Schools.
Author starts his/her article with an allusion to the recent movie (Waiting for Superman) about charter schools: Stories related to charter schools and their self-described movement has lately been featured in the media probably more than it has been for the past five years combined. This increase in public attention is indebted to many factors such as dedication of updated resources to the movement by the Obama administration and the latest documentary by Oscar winning director Davis Guggenheim, “Waiting for ‘Superman’”. As it has been the case wherever money is involved, the issue stirred a hot debate, emotions ranging from characterizing charter schools as the new savior of the broken education system to the latest demons to hijack money from our much-needy schools.
… The charters that achieved the reputation of being “high-performing” paved their success in this “high-accountability” period. Today there are dozens of these schools such as nationwide KIPP schools, California’s Green Dot public schools, Texas’ Harmony public schools or New York’s Harlem Success Academy. These charters have long track records and are subject to increasing public scrutiny.
After giving a few reasons for the students re-entering traditional public school system, the author unfolds a recent misconception about a group of charter schools: On August 17, 2010, USA Today ran a story on Texas’ acclaimed Harmony Public School. In the article, Ed Fuller, a University of Texas-Austin researcher, was quoted “It’s not hard to be ‘Exemplary’ if you lose all the kids who aren’t performing” (www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-17-turkishfinal17_CV_N.htm).
More than one month later Harmony was featured on Texas Tribune on September 27, 2010 with a title “What Drives High Achievement At Harmony Charters?” (www.texastribune.org/texas-education/texas-education-agency/what-drives-high-achievement-at-harmony-charters-/). This time Fuller conceded that the percentage (Fuller reported the network’s attrition rate as 50% in USA Today) was merely an estimate based on an informal review of high school-level data, not a comprehensive study. Fuller also said that he did not find that the students who left had significantly lower test scores than those who stayed. This is an example of the same account reported in two completely different ways.
How come a researcher like Ed Fuller falls into the trap of declaring unverified data? Is it because of some sort of pressure on him to publish those bogus data? Or is it something else that we don’t know? Why did he make his claims so confidently on national level and then pulled in his horns on statewide level? Besides, which data are we going to trust from now on? What is worse, there are substantial amount of people basing their accusations and attacks on these unverified facts, using such data or similar ones to attack certain charter schools and label them ‘Gulen Charter Schools’. This ‘Gulen Charter School’ concept, by the way, has recently become a popular tag. There are plenty of amateur free-to-buy websites and blogs that have started an unprecedented smear campaign on so-called Gulen Charter Schools. It is not easy task to determine their main causes, because, so far, in charter movement history, no such smear campaign has launched on any charter school group with all various blogs and amateur websites. Ironically, this campaign is performed against one of the most successful charter school chains in Texas or in any other state. It is also not fair to call these schools “Gulen Charter Schools” giving credit to Fethullah Gulen who repeatedly insisted that he has no ties with these schools in any way (see the same USA Today article). If there is a success story, it belongs to teachers, parents, administrators and of course the students of these schools. We should refrain from putting simplistic labels such as Gulen Charter Schools.
On one occasion, I saw a mini-article claiming that Math-Count is a Gulenist organization. That is just plain ignorance, not knowing the years-long American tradition. When you combine your ill-intention with utterly ignorant approach, you just come up with nothing but some embarrassment. How can someone be filled with so much hatred and ignorance at the same time? Like I said above, it is not easy to find out the main motives of people attacking charter schools and labeling them with something (Gulen Charter Schools) Americans have never heard until recently. Maybe this labeling (Gulen Charter Schools) is the 21st century version of a new opposition in American society. We have already wasted the 20th century with labeling people, groups and organizations and this century will put the burden on the shoulders of those labeled ones: get rid of your “Gulen Charter School” or any other label if you can!
After seeing Ed Fuller’s initial accusation and subsequent deflation, I wonder if other accusations of those attackers (on the same blogs) are the products of same helter-skelter approach. The attacks and accusations are solely based on rumors with no academic credibility. At the end of the day, it is curious to know the thing operating behind the curtain. Are “Gulen Charter School” attackers doing this just because they are against charter schools or they really care about our children’s education or they want to add more fuel to their Gulen antagonism? Throughout the history, seemingly innocent intentions have turned out to be a part of a bigger plan.
To make long story short, having served and positively changed the lives of hundreds and thousands of children, charter schools, just like any other schools, deserve to get rid of foolish labels put by clumsy researchers and ill-intentioned people.
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Answers to Concerned Parents on So-Called Gulen Charter Schools
Taken from Gulen and Charter Schools website.
On some websites, a person named Fethullah Gulen is accused of having charter schools along which a list is given. I have a son who goes to one of the charter schools in the list. Though, I am very happy with the school and have not heard anything about Fethullah Gulen nor about Fethullah Gulen charter schools, I am confused by this information. I would appreciate if you commented on this matter.
It is quite interesting that defamation of Turkish scholar Fethullah Gulen appears to have started recently, after political developments in Turkey and the number of such accusations increases every day. There are several points you need to know in order to contextually understand this issue:
About Fethullah Gulen
Fethullah Gulen is a Turkish scholar, thinker, social entrepreneur and opinion leader known for his stances for democracy, interfaith dialogue, peaceful coexistence, and secular education where universal values are embodied by altruistic teachers. Numerous non-governmental organizations have been established by citizens inspired by his life and works in the areas of education, interfaith dialogue, health-care, disaster relief and economic assistance.
In order to promote interfaith dialogue in his home country he has met with the leaders of various religious minorities including the Greek Patriarch, Armenian Patriarch, Chief Rabbi of Turkey, and others. In recognition of his contributions to interfaith understanding, he was given personal audience by the late Pope John Paul II.
Former U.S. President Clinton commented in an address to an audience at New York Turkish American Cultural Center that Turkish-Americans “are contributing to the promotion of the ideas of tolerance and interfaith dialogue inspired by Fethullah Gülen in his transnational social movement.” And they “are truly strengthening the fabric of our common humanity, as well as promoting the ongoing cultural and educational ties that bind our world together.” Recently former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan commented that the activities of the Gulen Institute hosted at University of Houston overlapped with his efforts during his tenure at the U.N. You may or may not agree with President Clinton’s or Secretary Annan’s views in other areas, but let’s agree that appreciation at this level is an indicator of significant positive social impact.
Further Readings:
“Fethullah Gulen’s Contribution to Muslim-Christian Dialogue in the Context of Abrahamic Cooperation” by Dr. Pim Valkenberg, November 3, 2005, Rice University
“Advocate of Dialogue: Fethullah Gulen” by Ali Unal, October 2000, Fountain Press
Fethullah Gulen is a supporter of democracy and human rights. He was one of the first Muslim scholars who publicly condemned September 11 attacks, and continue to condemn any form of terrorist actions. After the September 11, 2001, Gulen released a message both in New York Times and Washington Post to condemn 9/11 attacks.
Further Readings:
“A Sunni Muslim Scholar's Humanitarian and Religious Rejection of Violence against Civilians” by Dr. Alp Aslandogan, November 12, 2007, London School of Economics
“Fethullah Gulen's Thoughts on State, Democracy, Politics, and Terrorism” an interview with Fethullah Gulen by Dr. Zeki Saritoprak, July 2005, Muslim World Journal
With regards to claims about Fethullah Gulen:
1. Defamatory Postings Appear on Hate Sites: The inflammatory articles appear mostly as blog entries on xenophobic sites or radical websites. Some of them can easily be regarded as hate websites lacking scientific or even logical credibility.
2. Self-contradicting claims: Defamatory claims against Gulen appear to be custom designed depending on the audience. In Turkey, Gulen is accused by marginal circles of being a CIA-agent, a Mossad agent, the Vatican’s secret cardinal, or an agent of the U.S. in pursuit of the latter’s Greater Middle East Project. There are also claims that he is Jewish. To the Western audiences, he is depicted as a threat to secularism, pursuing a theocratic regime and recently as a person who is trying to infiltrate U.S. through charter schools which they portrait some schools as Fethullah Gulen charter schools. I don’t think one needs to be a brain surgeon to recognize the self-contradictory nature of these claims. The interesting thing about these claims is that some of them are made by the very same people, not realizing that some members of the audience speak both languages. The following article illustrates this phenomenon.
“Hypocrisy in languages: criticizing Fethullah Gülen, English or Turkish?” by Abdulhamid Turker, 10 November 2009, Today’s Zaman
3. Manipulating the facts: Some of the defamatory articles distort, hide or otherwise misrepresent facts. For an example, see :
“Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition”: A Biased, Selective, Misleading, Misrepresentative and Miscalculated Article” by Dogan Koc, January 29, 2010, Fethullah Gulen Forum
Questions to ask:
1. If the defamatory accusations about Gulen were true would he be granted permanent residency as an educational expert by the US government?
2. How is it possible that these claimants are able to see what the intelligence agencies are not capable of seeing?
3. Is there a connection between these marginal groups with the ongoing Ergenekon trial in Turkey where a clandestine armed group with links to the hard-liners in the military are being brought to justice for the first time in Turkish history? Is there a pattern to the defamatory sites?
4. More importantly, what is your evidence?
Further Readings:
Ergenekon Trial
Ergenekon Facts vs. Fiction:
With regards to charter schools:
According to our research charter schools are non-sectarian public schools. Through systematic inspections and audits, state regulation agencies ensure that charter schools are nonsectarian in their programs, admissions policies, employment practices, and all other operations, and are not affiliated with a sectarian school or religious institution. Furthermore, charter schools are subject to the same standards of accountability with the public schools. They are funded by the states and are accountable to the states. State boards of education oversee and inspect these schools.
It is conceivable that some individuals who work in private and public institutions are inspired by the works of Mr. Fethullah Gulen if they are originally from Turkey. According to a survey conducted by Dr. Akbar Ahmed, a professor at an American university, Gulen is regarded as a top contemporary role model in Turkey. Various online polls suggest high levels of approval for Gulen’s ideas in Turkey. You can read “Gulen and U.S. Educators” here in our blog.
Fethullah Gulen and U.S. educators
Finally, you pointed out as a parent that you were happy with the school that your child attends and if the school’s accountability rating is high, our humble opinion is that that all what should matter. The people who started all these claims and accusations on the blogs, calling them Fethullah Gulen charter schools or simply Gulen charter schools, seem to have agenda and post their baseless accusations on any website they come across for disinformation purposes.
I hope that these comments help answer some of your questions.
On some websites, a person named Fethullah Gulen is accused of having charter schools along which a list is given. I have a son who goes to one of the charter schools in the list. Though, I am very happy with the school and have not heard anything about Fethullah Gulen nor about Fethullah Gulen charter schools, I am confused by this information. I would appreciate if you commented on this matter.
It is quite interesting that defamation of Turkish scholar Fethullah Gulen appears to have started recently, after political developments in Turkey and the number of such accusations increases every day. There are several points you need to know in order to contextually understand this issue:
About Fethullah Gulen
Fethullah Gulen is a Turkish scholar, thinker, social entrepreneur and opinion leader known for his stances for democracy, interfaith dialogue, peaceful coexistence, and secular education where universal values are embodied by altruistic teachers. Numerous non-governmental organizations have been established by citizens inspired by his life and works in the areas of education, interfaith dialogue, health-care, disaster relief and economic assistance.
In order to promote interfaith dialogue in his home country he has met with the leaders of various religious minorities including the Greek Patriarch, Armenian Patriarch, Chief Rabbi of Turkey, and others. In recognition of his contributions to interfaith understanding, he was given personal audience by the late Pope John Paul II.
Former U.S. President Clinton commented in an address to an audience at New York Turkish American Cultural Center that Turkish-Americans “are contributing to the promotion of the ideas of tolerance and interfaith dialogue inspired by Fethullah Gülen in his transnational social movement.” And they “are truly strengthening the fabric of our common humanity, as well as promoting the ongoing cultural and educational ties that bind our world together.” Recently former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan commented that the activities of the Gulen Institute hosted at University of Houston overlapped with his efforts during his tenure at the U.N. You may or may not agree with President Clinton’s or Secretary Annan’s views in other areas, but let’s agree that appreciation at this level is an indicator of significant positive social impact.
Further Readings:
“Fethullah Gulen’s Contribution to Muslim-Christian Dialogue in the Context of Abrahamic Cooperation” by Dr. Pim Valkenberg, November 3, 2005, Rice University
“Advocate of Dialogue: Fethullah Gulen” by Ali Unal, October 2000, Fountain Press
Fethullah Gulen is a supporter of democracy and human rights. He was one of the first Muslim scholars who publicly condemned September 11 attacks, and continue to condemn any form of terrorist actions. After the September 11, 2001, Gulen released a message both in New York Times and Washington Post to condemn 9/11 attacks.
Further Readings:
“A Sunni Muslim Scholar's Humanitarian and Religious Rejection of Violence against Civilians” by Dr. Alp Aslandogan, November 12, 2007, London School of Economics
“Fethullah Gulen's Thoughts on State, Democracy, Politics, and Terrorism” an interview with Fethullah Gulen by Dr. Zeki Saritoprak, July 2005, Muslim World Journal
With regards to claims about Fethullah Gulen:
1. Defamatory Postings Appear on Hate Sites: The inflammatory articles appear mostly as blog entries on xenophobic sites or radical websites. Some of them can easily be regarded as hate websites lacking scientific or even logical credibility.
2. Self-contradicting claims: Defamatory claims against Gulen appear to be custom designed depending on the audience. In Turkey, Gulen is accused by marginal circles of being a CIA-agent, a Mossad agent, the Vatican’s secret cardinal, or an agent of the U.S. in pursuit of the latter’s Greater Middle East Project. There are also claims that he is Jewish. To the Western audiences, he is depicted as a threat to secularism, pursuing a theocratic regime and recently as a person who is trying to infiltrate U.S. through charter schools which they portrait some schools as Fethullah Gulen charter schools. I don’t think one needs to be a brain surgeon to recognize the self-contradictory nature of these claims. The interesting thing about these claims is that some of them are made by the very same people, not realizing that some members of the audience speak both languages. The following article illustrates this phenomenon.
“Hypocrisy in languages: criticizing Fethullah Gülen, English or Turkish?” by Abdulhamid Turker, 10 November 2009, Today’s Zaman
3. Manipulating the facts: Some of the defamatory articles distort, hide or otherwise misrepresent facts. For an example, see :
“Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition”: A Biased, Selective, Misleading, Misrepresentative and Miscalculated Article” by Dogan Koc, January 29, 2010, Fethullah Gulen Forum
Questions to ask:
1. If the defamatory accusations about Gulen were true would he be granted permanent residency as an educational expert by the US government?
2. How is it possible that these claimants are able to see what the intelligence agencies are not capable of seeing?
3. Is there a connection between these marginal groups with the ongoing Ergenekon trial in Turkey where a clandestine armed group with links to the hard-liners in the military are being brought to justice for the first time in Turkish history? Is there a pattern to the defamatory sites?
4. More importantly, what is your evidence?
Further Readings:
Ergenekon Trial
Ergenekon Facts vs. Fiction:
With regards to charter schools:
According to our research charter schools are non-sectarian public schools. Through systematic inspections and audits, state regulation agencies ensure that charter schools are nonsectarian in their programs, admissions policies, employment practices, and all other operations, and are not affiliated with a sectarian school or religious institution. Furthermore, charter schools are subject to the same standards of accountability with the public schools. They are funded by the states and are accountable to the states. State boards of education oversee and inspect these schools.
It is conceivable that some individuals who work in private and public institutions are inspired by the works of Mr. Fethullah Gulen if they are originally from Turkey. According to a survey conducted by Dr. Akbar Ahmed, a professor at an American university, Gulen is regarded as a top contemporary role model in Turkey. Various online polls suggest high levels of approval for Gulen’s ideas in Turkey. You can read “Gulen and U.S. Educators” here in our blog.
Fethullah Gulen and U.S. educators
Finally, you pointed out as a parent that you were happy with the school that your child attends and if the school’s accountability rating is high, our humble opinion is that that all what should matter. The people who started all these claims and accusations on the blogs, calling them Fethullah Gulen charter schools or simply Gulen charter schools, seem to have agenda and post their baseless accusations on any website they come across for disinformation purposes.
I hope that these comments help answer some of your questions.
