THE biggest achievement of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, during a decade of rule, has been to get the army out of politics. He did it with the help of the country’s most influential Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen (pictured), who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania but commands a global network of schools, charities and media outlets.Now Mr Erdogan has turned on his former ally in a show of force that is likely to determine his own future as well as that of Turkish politics. Strange though it seems to many, Mr Gulen is perhaps the only force that can halt Mr Erdogan’s drift towards authoritarianism. He is also credited with keeping Turkish Islam moderate.Will Mr Gulen mobilise his flock, thought to be in the millions, against Mr Erdogan and his Islamist-leaning Justice and Development (AK) party in the March municipal elections? If so, will their support be enough to wrest Istanbul, the biggest municipal prize, from AK? And what of Mr Erdogan’s dream of becoming Turkey’s first popularly elected president when the post becomes vacant in August?Opinions differ on the outcome of what Kadri Gursel, a pundit, calls the “ugly divorce”. With…
