Islamic Menzil cult representative meets with deputy commander of Turkish Gendarmerie
Raşid Seydaoğlu, who is alleged to be the “bureaucracy representative” of the Islamic Menzil cult, met with Lieutenant General Halis Zafer Koç, deputy commander of the Turkish Gendarmerie. Seydaoğlu also claimed that he held meetings with President Erdoğan.
Duvar English
A high representative of the Islamic Menzil cult has met with deputy commander of the Turkish Gendarmerie in a recent date, according to the reporting of the daily BirGün.
Muhammed Raşid Seydaoğlu is one of the most important figures of the Menzil cult in the capital Ankara and a member of the family that runs the cult. Seydaoğlu has been actually a civil servant, officially employed by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) as an imam.
Seydaoğlu, who is alleged to be the bureaucracy representative of the Menzil cult, met with Lieutenant General Halis Zafer Koç, Deputy Commander of the Gendarmerie General Command.
It is not known why Lieutenant General Koç met with Seydaoğlu at his office. The cult has been known to have rapidly organized in the gendarmerie, police and Turkish Armed Forces particularly after the coup attempt by the Gülenists in 2016.
Journalist İsmail Arı reported that Seydaoğlu was alleged to have controlled many public appointments in Ankara, including high-level ones, on behalf of the cult.
Reached by the daily BirGün, Seydaoğlu claimed that all his meetings with the bureaucrats were not on behalf of Menzil but on behalf of himself. He said, "I am related to Menzil sheikhs, they are my uncles. On behalf of myself, as a human being, I meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and all ministers. My meetings are not related to the cult. I am a civil servant, an employee of the Diyanet.”
He claimed that he also have friends in the main opposition Republican People’s Party and the nationalist opposition Good (İYİ) Party.
On the other hand, Seydaoğlu's social media accounts contain many posts about the Menzil cult. In one platform, Seydaoğlu stated that is also the chair of the board of Mesey Health and Medical Company.
After infiltrating the army and police forces for years during the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) tenure, Gülenist, another Islamic cult, attempted to seize the government with a military coup in 2016.
While the government has been purging Gülenists and deemed them “members of an armed terrorists organization,” other many Islamic cults have been known to have close ties with the AKP.