Diaspora activism in a non-traditional country of destination: the Gülen Movement in Czechia

ABSTRACT

Diaspora groups have increasingly become active and influential transnational actors, whose mobilization strategies react to strategic opportunities and constraints. The article explores how the GM diaspora embeddedness in specific contexts affected the trajectory of its transnational mobilization. It argues that the Turkish EU candidacy status, the rise of the AKP-GM alliance and the Czech accession to the EU created new opportunity structures for the GM in Czechia but they could not maintain the momentum the critical juncture opened in the Czech public debate due to the closing opportunity structures in Czechia. Their political activism has also been undermined by the strategically selective state-led transnationalism and heavy transnational repression, which intensified the interdependency between transnationalization and localization of the GM activities. The article contributes to the study of state-led transnationalism in deeply polarized societies and its impact on diaspora activism before and after a critical juncture.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational mobilization
• Gülen movement
• Czechia
• critical juncture
• state-led transnationalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 While the informal alliance received first cracks following the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, the relationship started to turn cold in 2012 and developed into an open conflict in December 2013. For more, see, e.g. Kutahyali (2013).

2 Yilmaz (2003) discusses this strategy as part of the dar al-hizmet concept. For the global employment of the three layers, see e.g. Dreher (2018).

3 For more on the GM project financing, see Watmough and Öztürk (2018).

4 Due to the fragile security situation of the GM followers, the names and locations will not be published to protect their identity.

Interview 1: 4 March 2019

Interview 2: 26 August 2019

Interview 3: 27 May 2020

Interview 4: 27 May 2020

Interview 5: 28 May 2020

5 Interview 6: 5 and 15 July, 2020.

6 The centre hosted debates titled Respect for Sacred Values and Freedom of Speech; Immigrants and Xenophobia; Media and Their Impact on Societal Integrity; Women in Modern Society; Cultural Minorities in European Identity; Sexism and Violence Against Women; Education: Inclusion and Integration, etc. The invited speakers were, e.g. MP Nina Novakova (TOP 09), president of the Czech Senate Milan Štěch (Soc. Dem.), party vice-president Daniel Herman (Christ. Dem.), sociologist Jirina Siklova, cardinal Miloslav Vlk, singer Jiri Dedecek, journalists Jan Hudema and Petruska Sustrova, academics Jiri Pehe and Michael Romancov, and many more.

7 The author personally attended the meeting.

8 Member of Civic Democratic Party, the main opposition party in 2021.

9 Member of Christian Democratic Party – Christian Democratic Union, a junior member of the government in 2022.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Grantová Agentura České Republiky [grant number GA19-15958S].

Notes on contributors

Lucie Tungul

Lucie Tungul is an assistant professor at the Department of Politics and Social Sciences, Law Faculty, Palacky University. She holds degrees from Miami University, Ohio (international relations), and Palacky University (politics and European studies). She was a faculty at Fatih University, Istanbul (2006–2014). She is a member of the Czech Political Science Association executive board and Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies Academic Council. She has published numerous articles, book chapters, books and policy papers on Europeanization, democratization, Euroscepticism, migration processes and identity discourses.