Former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer and author of the book entitled "Future of the Political Islam" Graham Fuller said, 'It is hard for me to think of Fethullah Gulen as radical Islamist, he is definitely not'.

While presenting a paper at the joint third Eurasia International Conference organized by the Eurasia Strategic Research Center and University of Michigan, an audience member asked Fuller, 'Should Fethullah Gulen and his community be considered radical Islamist or a window to the future of Islam?' Fuller dismissed the idea emphatically, adding that Turkey was the only country where radical Islam was not a problem.

Making the opening speech at the conference, Suleyman Demirel stated that the next ten years would be a critical period for the Central Asian republics and warned that there would be mistrust if they did not receive the necessary attention from the world. Demirel said Turkey's special interest in the region was not to assume a "big brother figure", but rather that it stemmed from religion, language and culture - Central Asia being the motherland of the Turks.

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