Fethullah Gülen, the Turkish cleric who was a former political ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and turned nemesis of the authoritarian leader, died on Sunday at the age of 83 in a U.S. hospital from an unknown illness. .
Gulen has lived in exile in Pennsylvania since 1999. Erdoğan regime accused It accused him of masterminding the 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and urged the United States to extradite him on charges of treason, but the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations all rejected these demands.
Gülen has reportedly been in poor health for the past few years. Several family members and officials associated with his religious movement, Hizmet, confirmed his death on Sunday but provided few details about the death.
“Our teacher passed away at 21:20 on October 20, 2024 at the hospital where he had been receiving treatment.” said Dialogue and Education Foundation, an organization associated with the Gülen movement based in Germany.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan Confirmed On Gülen's death, he spoke of the late cleric in less affectionate terms, calling him the leader of a “dark organization” and saying his death represented a small step forward in Turkey's fight against terrorism. said.
“This organization has been at the center of a unique threat in our nation's history, deceiving thousands of young people in the name of sacred values and betraying our homeland, our nation, and our sacred values. We have turned them into machines,” Fidan accused.
“Our nation's resolve in the fight against terrorism will continue, and this news of his death will never make us complacent.”
Fidan said Gulen's death should break his “spell” on his followers.
File / July 18, 2016, Istanbul, Turkey Support for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan holds up a portrait of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen during a pro-government demonstration in Taksim Square in central Istanbul. The people. (Kursat Bayhan/Getty Images)
“I urge them to abandon the dangerous path they have followed and cease their activities against the state and against it,” he said.
Turkish government refer to As FETO, the “Fetullah Terror Organization”, it influences Gulen's global movements, committed a cruel act Since the 2016 coup attempt, it has aimed to remove its members from government and military positions. Human rights groups have condemned the purge as a violation of religious freedom.
Turkey also harasses Gulen supporters abroad in a variety of ways, including allegedly assassination plots. Erdoğan officials and his media allies spun Outlandish conspiracy theory blames CIA, NATO and Israel's Mossad work They are colluding with Gulen, but have never provided evidence for their claims.
Gulen himself condemned He insisted in the “strongest terms” about the 2016 coup attempt and denied any connection to the plot. European Union (EU) intelligence official concluded In 2017, President Erdoğan himself planned a large-scale purge against his political opponents, leading to an attempted coup. Adversaries concluded that overthrowing the government was their best chance of fighting back. Some of the rebels were supporters of Gulen, but the EU found no evidence that Gulen or his organization coordinated the effort.
Notably, few other governments have followed Turkey's lead in condemning FETO as a terrorist organization (or even officially labeling it as “FETO”), but Gülen's movement still Saw and some kind of suspicion – including the United States, where Hizmet operates a network of about 150 charter schools. These schools are investigated Charged with fraud, tax fraud, and religious discrimination.
Glen's network is involved in schools and cultural centers in more than 100 countries, and his movement has millions of supporters. His influence as an Islamic cleric was very useful to Erdogan as he rose to power throughout the 1990s, but in 2013 he accused Erdogan of orchestrating a wave of corruption investigations to topple the Gulen government. , the alliance between the two countries led to violent conflicts and an open political war. His government used prosecutors and police officials loyal to his movement.
