Mücahit Birinci, a former senior executive of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has called for the “elimination” of supporters of the faith-based Gülen movement, referring to them as “zombies” who cannot be considered normal human beings.
Birinci said in a post on X that he supported identifying what he described as the movement’s senior leadership and the core structure and “eliminating” them, “even if they are abroad,” adding, “They cannot be normal human beings in any other way. Since they are zombies, they should be treated as zombies.”
Birinci’s remarks came after comments by Doğu Perinçek, leader of the ultranationalist Homeland Party (VP), who suggested that the government should seek to “reintegrate” supporters of the movement, describing them as “our lost people” who could be pardoned if they publicly denounced it as “an organization serving American imperialism and Israel.”
The Perinçek-affiliated Aydınlık daily republished his post without criticism or editorial comment.
Birinci previously served on the AKP’s 50-member Central Decision and Executive Board (MKYK), the party’s highest decision-making body, before resigning in August 2025 following public backlash over corruption allegations.
He was accused of demanding $2 million from a businessman detained during investigations targeting the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, allegedly promising his release in exchange for signing a prepared testimony and making the payment.
The investigations into the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality are widely seen by critics as politically motivated and part of growing pressure on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Birinci has also previously referred to members of the Gülen movement as “demons” and promised to make life unbearable for them anywhere in the world.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and a conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan began to target the movement’s members. He designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016 and intensified the crackdown on it following an abortive putsch in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Since 2013 Erdoğan has employed increasingly hostile rhetoric against movement members. He described them as “terrorists,” “traitors,” “vampires,” “leeches,” “tumor” and “virus.” He developed a unique vocabulary of hateful slurs and insults that singled out the Gülen movement and eventually declared that the followers of the movement “have no right to life.”
Following the 2016 coup attempt, this rhetoric evolved into a broader campaign carried out through official government statements and the mainstream media. As part of that effort, the Turkish government coined the derogatory term “FETÖ,” short for “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization,” to refer to the Gülen movement.
International organizations, foreign governments and major international media outlets avoid using the term except in direct quotations from Turkish officials.
