The Language of the Gülenists Vol. 2

Some of the other basic terms

These terms go into some of the later years of the Gülen movement. This is obviously a vast movement with a well-developed view of the world, and I can’t hope to scratch the surface in two blog posts. I hope, however, that it’ll cover some ground some of you aren’t familiar with.

For the first part of the series, see here:

The Language of the Gülenists Vol. 1

I’ve got some pretty exciting posts coming up soon, so I’m going to conclude this series here for now. Feel free to get a discussion going in the comments section though!

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Abi/abla: unlike many Western languages, Turkish has specific words for older siblings. An older brother is an “ağabey” (abbreviated “abi”) and an older sister is an “abla.” These terms are also used as colloquial addresses. Someone on the street might say to a stranger slightly older in appearance “hey brother [abi], do you have a light?” or “what time is the bus coming, sister [abla]?” Acquaintances who are older in age are also addressed in this way. If you are 20 years old and Abdullah, your work colleague, is 35, you’re going to address him as “Abdullah abi.” Just calling him “Abdullah” would be rude.

That’s the linguistic ground covered.

The Gülenists had a very particular use of these terms. By the 1980s, their main recruitment grounds were middle and high school students preparing for university entrance exams, especially in outer provinces. They built a network of remarkably efficient cramming groups that appealed to these kids.

Small groups of students would meet after school at the home of an “abi” or “abla”, slightly more senior Gülenists in their 20s or 30s. These groups became units that studied for exams together, but they’d also pray together, read Gülenist texts, listen to recordings, and meet for discussion groups (“sohbet”). This was appealing to many parents because it kept their kids to remain on the straight and narrow. Students in these groups would typically be highly-focused and do well on the university exams. Once it came time to decide on a university and major, the abi/abla would assign specific choices to students based on their own needs. That’s why you sometimes saw students who got very high scores choose pretty low-level majors (like teaching) at mediocre universities.

There is an “abi type” that’s often represented online with this photo, probably from the late 80s or 90s. Note the formal attire, thin “almond” mustache, hands clasped in modest fashion.

I have a friend who came up through one of these networks, but dropped out when his “abi” assigned a university and major to him he didn’t like. He says the last conversation he had with his abi was on the phone, and it was pretty tense. Basically, the abi told him that God wanted him to suspend his preferences and just do what the movement was telling him. My friend said that they didn’t know what God wanted, shouted “fuck you” into the phone and hung up.

Before 2013, he was nervous about having cursed at a Gülenist abi. After 2013, he was nervous about having ever been in a Gülenist cram group. I’ll go into the reasons below.

To get a sense of an “abi home” (abi evi) watch the clip below. It’s from a show on Samanyolu TV, which was a Gülenist-owned channel. A group of conservative university students live together and struggle with expenses until an older, more experienced person arrives and helps them out. It’s not quite what you’d see in an “abi home,” but it’s close. Note how members of the household pray together (4:20) and eat their meals on the floor (5:20). Gülenist homes had very minimal furniture and usually ate their meals on the ground, the way people would have done in eastern Anatolia in Gülen’s youth.

(A colleague and I wrote more about the Gülenist education system here)