SAYLORSBURG, Pa. — Fethullah Gülen, a reclusive U.S.-based Islamic cleric who impressed a world social motion whereas dealing with accusations he masterminded a failed 2016 coup in his native Turkey, has died.
Abdullah Bozkurt, the previous editor of the Gulen-linked As we speak’s Zaman newspaper, who’s now in exile in Sweden, mentioned Monday that he spoke to Gulen’s nephew, Kemal Gulen, who confirmed the loss of life. Fethullah Gülen was in his eighties and had lengthy been in unwell well being.
The state-run Anadolu Company quoted Turkish Overseas Ministry Hakan Fidan as saying the loss of life has been confirmed by Turkish intelligence sources.
Gülen spent the final many years of his life in self-exile, residing on a gated compound in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains from the place he continued to wield affect amongst his hundreds of thousands of followers in Turkey and all through the world. He espoused a philosophy that blended Sufism — a mystical type of Islam — with staunch advocacy of democracy, training, science and interfaith dialogue.
Gülen started as an ally of Turkish chief Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however turned a foe. He referred to as Erdogan an authoritarian bent on accumulating energy and crushing dissent. Erdogan solid Gülen as a terrorist, accusing him of orchestrating the tried navy coup on the night time of July 15, 2016, when factions inside the navy used tanks, warplanes and helicopters to attempt to overthrow Erdogan’s authorities.
Heeding a name from the president, hundreds took to the streets to oppose the takeover try. The coup-plotters fired at crowds and bombed parliament and different authorities buildings. A complete of 251 folks have been killed and round 2,200 others have been wounded. Round 35 alleged coup plotters have been additionally killed.
Gülen adamantly denied involvement, and his supporters dismissed the costs as ridiculous and politically motivated. Turkey put Gülen on its most-wanted checklist and demanded his extradition, however the US confirmed little inclination to ship him again, saying it wanted extra proof. Gülen was by no means charged with a criminal offense within the U.S., and he persistently denounced terrorism in addition to the coup plotters.
In Turkey, Gülen’s motion — generally generally known as Hizmet, Turkish for “service” — was subjected to a broad crackdown. The federal government arrested tens of hundreds of individuals for his or her alleged hyperlink to the coup plot, sacked greater than 130,000 suspected supporters from civil service jobs and greater than 23,000 from the navy, and shuttered tons of of companies, faculties and media organizations tied to Gülen.
Gülen referred to as the crackdown a witch hunt and denounced Turkey’s leaders as “tyrants.”
“The final 12 months has taken a toll on me as tons of of hundreds of harmless Turkish residents are being punished just because the federal government decides they’re one way or the other ‘related’ to me or the Hizmet motion and treats that alleged connection as a criminal offense,” he mentioned on the one-year anniversary of the failed coup.
Turkish Overseas Minister Fidan mentioned Monday that Gülen’s loss of life “is not going to make us complacent. Our nation and state will proceed to struggle in opposition to this group, as they do in opposition to all terrorist organizations.”
Fethullah Gülen was born in Erzurum, in jap Turkey. His official start date was April 27, 1941, however that has lengthy been in dispute. Y. Alp Aslandogan, who leads a New York-based group that promotes Gülen’s concepts and work, mentioned Gülen was truly born someday in 1938.
Skilled as an imam, or prayer chief, Gülen gained discover in Turkey some 50 years in the past. He preached tolerance and dialogue between faiths, and he believed faith and science might go hand in hand. His perception in merging Islam with Western values and Turkish nationalism struck a chord with Turks, incomes him hundreds of thousands of followers.
Gülen’s acolytes constructed a loosely affiliated world community of charitable foundations, skilled associations, companies and faculties in additional than 100 international locations, together with 150 taxpayer-funded constitution faculties all through the US. In Turkey, supporters ran universities, hospitals, charities, a financial institution and a big media empire with newspapers and radio and TV stations.
However Gülen was seen with suspicion by some in his homeland, a deeply polarized nation break up between these loyal to its fiercely secular traditions and supporters of the Islamic-based social gathering related to Erdogan that got here to energy in 2002.
Gülen had lengthy shunned brazenly supporting any political social gathering, however his motion cast a de facto alliance with Erdogan in opposition to the nation’s outdated guard of staunch, military-backed secularists, and Gülen’s media empire threw its weight behind Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented authorities.
Gülenists helped the governing social gathering win a number of elections. However the Erdogan-Gulen alliance started to crumble after the motion criticized authorities coverage and uncovered alleged corruption amongst Erdogan’s inside circle. Erdogan, who denied the allegations, grew weary of the rising affect of Gülen’s motion.
The Turkish chief accused Gülen’s followers of infiltrating the nation’s police and judiciary and establishing a parallel state, and commenced agitating for Gülen’s extradition to Turkey even earlier than the failed 2016 coup.
The cleric had lived in the US since 1999, when he got here to hunt medical remedy.
In 2000, with Gülen nonetheless within the U.S, Turkish authorities charged him with main an Islamist plot to overthrow the nation’s secular type of authorities and set up a non secular state.
A number of the accusations in opposition to him have been primarily based on a tape recording on which Gülen was alleged to have instructed supporters of an Islamic state to bide their time: “If they arrive out too early, the world will quash their heads.” Gülen mentioned his feedback have been taken out of context.
The cleric was tried in absentia and acquitted, however he by no means returned to his homeland. He gained a prolonged authorized battle in opposition to the administration of then-President George W. Bush to acquire everlasting residency within the U.S.
Hardly ever seen in public, Gülen lived quietly on the grounds of an Islamic retreat heart within the Poconos. He occupied a small house on the sprawling compound and left principally solely to see docs for illnesses that included coronary heart illness and diabetes, spending a lot of his time in prayer and meditation and receiving guests from world wide.
Gülen by no means married and didn’t have kids. It’s not identified who, if anybody, will lead the motion.
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Related Press Author Suzan Fraser contributed from Ankara, Turkey.
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