Turkey's Erdoğan challenges Gülen to form a political party

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has challenged Fethullah Gülen, the self-exiled leader of the influential Hizmet Movement, to establish a political party to compete with his government in the political sphere, vowing to fight against what he calls a “parallel state” led by the Islamic scholar, Hürriyet Daily News reports.

“Turkey is no longer a country whose rule can be imposed from abroad. This became history. They should better come to Turkey and deal with this issue through politics,” Erdoğan is quoted as saying by the news agency.

Gülen has been residing in the United States since the late 1990s after he was prosecuted for his alleged attempts to break the constitutional order in Turkey but refused to return even though he was acquitted of all charges under the AKP party’s rule, the news agency notes.