US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who constructed a strong Islamic motion in Turkey and past however spent his closing years mired in accusations of orchestrating a coup try towards Turkish chief Tayyip Erdogan, has died. He was 83 years previous.
Herkul, an internet site that publishes Gulen’s sermons, mentioned on its X account that Gulen had died Sunday afternoon on the American hospital the place he was being handled.
Gulen was a former ally of Erdogan, however they clashed spectacularly, with Erdogan holding him answerable for the 2016 coup try during which insurgent troopers seized fighter jets, tanks and helicopters. Some 250 folks died within the try to seize energy.
Gulen, who had lived in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999, denied involvement within the coup, however his motion was designated a terrorist group by Türkiye.
International Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed his dying, describing him because the chief of a “darkish group” and saying Turkey’s battle towards the group would proceed.
“Our nation’s resolve within the battle towards terrorism will proceed and this information of his dying won’t ever lead us to complacency,” Fidan mentioned at a information convention.
Based on his followers, Gulen’s motion – generally known as “Hizmet,” which suggests “service” in Turkish – seeks to unfold a average model of Islam that promotes Western-style training, free markets and interfaith communication.
For the reason that failed coup, his motion has been systematically dismantled in Türkiye and its worldwide affect has declined.
Recognized to his followers as Hodjaefendi, or revered trainer, Gulen was born in a village within the jap Turkish province of Erzurum in 1941. The son of an imam or Islamic preacher, he studied the Quran from childhood.
In 1959, Gulen was appointed imam of a mosque within the northwestern metropolis of Edirne and rose to prominence as a preacher within the Nineteen Sixties within the western province of Izmir, the place he arrange dormitories for college students and went to teahouses to evangelise.
These scholar homes marked the start of a casual community that might unfold within the coming many years by way of training, enterprise, media, and state establishments.
Its affect additionally unfold past Türkiye’s borders to the Turkish republics of Central Asia, the Balkans, Africa and the West by way of a community of colleges.
Fidan mentioned he hoped Gulen’s dying would elevate a “spell” on Turkish youth who had taken a path of “betrayal” towards their nation underneath the pretext of non secular values. “This isn’t a great path,” he added.
ERDOGAN’S FORMER ALLY
Gulen had been an in depth ally of Erdogan and his AK Celebration, however rising tensions of their relationship exploded in December 2013 when corruption investigations focusing on ministers and officers near Erdogan got here to mild.
Prosecutors and police from Gulen’s Hizmet motion had been extensively believed to be behind the investigations and an arrest warrant was issued for Gulen in 2014. His motion was designated a terrorist group two years later.
Shortly after the 2016 coup, Erdogan described Gulen’s community as traitors and “like a most cancers,” and vowed to eradicate them wherever they’re. A whole lot of colleges, firms, media retailers and associations linked to him had been closed and property confiscated.
Gulen condemned the coup try “within the strongest phrases.”
“As somebody who suffered a number of navy coups over the previous 5 many years, it’s particularly insulting to be accused of getting any hyperlink to such an try,” he mentioned.
In a post-coup crackdown, which the federal government mentioned focused Gulen’s followers, not less than 77,000 folks had been arrested and 150,000 state employees, together with academics, judges and troopers, suspended underneath the state of emergency.
Corporations and media retailers thought-about linked to Gulen had been confiscated by the state or closed. The federal government mentioned its actions had been justified by the seriousness of the risk the coup posed to the state.
Gulen was additionally vilified by the Turkish opposition, which believed his community had conspired for many years to undermine the republic’s secular foundations.
Ankara has been making an attempt to extradite him from the US for a very long time.
Talking at his closed compound in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, Gulen mentioned in an interview with Reuters in 2017 that he had no plans to flee the US to keep away from extradition. Even then, he appeared frail and had his longtime physician shut at hand.
