Turkish preacher and Erdoğan’s longtime rival Fethullah Gülen has died, media claim
Ankara claimed that Gülen, who died at the age of 83, was behind the failed coup to topple Erdoğan in 2016, an accusation Gülen denied.
Fethullah Gülen, a scholar, preacher and former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who Ankara accused of fomenting the 2016 coup, has died in the US where he was based, Turkish media and a website close to Gülen said.
Herkul, a website which publishes Gülen’s sermons, said on its X account that Gulen, 83, had died on Sunday evening in the hospital where he was being treated.
Gülen, who founded a powerful religious movement in Turkey known as Hizmet, had lived in a self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania after falling out with Erdoğan and his AK party.
The failed coup in Turkey on 15 July 2016, aimed at removing Erdoğan from power, left 251 people dead and nearly 2,200 wounded after parts of the army took control of tanks, jets and helicopters.
Hizmet, which Ankara labelled a terrorist organisation, was said to have operated in a wide network counting tens of thousands of people in influential positions.
After the 2016 coup, the Turkish government went on a series of crackdowns, arresting judges, army officers and soldiers, and journalists and suspending some 20,000 teaching licences, particularly of those who worked in schools in Turkey and abroad — including the Balkans and Africa — allegedly linked to Hizmet.
Gülen has denied any involvement in the coup. “I really don’t know 0.1% of the people in this movement”, Gülen said in the past. “I haven’t done much. I have just spoken out on what I believe.”
He had also called for an international investigation into the coup, vowing his “full cooperation”.
“No one, neither I nor anyone else, is above the law. I want all the guilty, regardless of their affiliation, to be sentenced to the punishments they deserve in a fair trial,” he told the French newspaper Le Monde in August 2016.
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