CNN
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Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen, a longtime bitter rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who was blamed for a deadly failed coup attempt in 2016, has died at the age of 83, according to Turkish officials and a media outlet linked to the country. spiritual movement.

The US-based cleric’s death was announced on Monday by Herkul Nagme, a news outlet linked to Gülen.

“Our religious leader, the great Fethullah Gülen, who dedicated his life to Islam and serving humanity, has gone beyond the horizon of his mind,” said X, adding that he had been receiving hospital treatment for some time.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed Gülen’s death at a news conference in Ankara and vowed to continue the fight against the cleric group, which is labeled a terrorist organization in Turkey.

“The leader of this dark organization is dead. Our determination in the fight against terrorism remains undiminished. The news of his death will not lead us to complacency,” he said.

State broadcaster TRT announced his death on Monday, calling him “a traitor, an enemy of religion and a terrorist who conspired against” the country all his life.

Born in 1941, Gülen rose through the ranks of Turkey’s religious bureaucracy to become an influential imam, building his base of followers over decades. However, he went into self-imposed exile in 1999, when he moved from Turkey to the United States and settled in the small, leafy town of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.

Supporters described Gülen as a peaceful, moderate cleric who favored interfaith dialogue. His followers, many of whom were devout lower-middle-class Muslims who were then disenfranchised by Turkey’s fervently secularist power circles, formed a movement called Hizmet.

Gülen’s movement has established schools, free study centers, hospitals and aid organizations responsible for addressing some of Turkey’s social problems. Within Turkey, Gulenists also owned TV stations, newspapers, gold mines and at least one bank.

The movement also spawned a global network of schools and universities operating in more than 100 countries.

When Gülen moved to the US in 1999, his supporters cited medical reasons, while his critics claim he evaded scrutiny because he tried to undermine the secular government by setting up a religious government – charges he denied.

When Erdogan took power in 2002, the Hizmet movement supported the then prime minister – with many Gülenists among Erdogan’s allies. In fact, it was with their help that Erdogan had previously carried out military purges and shadowy trials against secular generals and officers.

But the relationship began to deteriorate in the early 2010s, caused by the government trying to close Gulenist education centers and Gulenists accusing senior government officials of bribery. Their rivalry soon became openly hostile, with Erdogan issuing veiled warnings against “those supported by dark circles from inside and outside the country.”

In a 2014 interview with CNN, a top official from Erdogan’s ruling AKP party called the Gülen movement a “fifth column” that had infiltrated Turkey’s police and judiciary.

The government now categorizes the Gülenists as a terrorist organization, called FETO.

Then came the attempted coup in 2016, which killed 290 people and injured more than 1,400. After a wave of violence that saw tanks roll through the city’s roads, the attempted coup was crushed.

Erdogan quickly pointed the finger at Gulen, and a crackdown followed. Thousands of people suspected of having ties to Gülen were arrested or fired. Turkey called on the US to extradite the cleric and the US refusal to do so was one of the main sticking points at a time when Turkish-American relations were at a new low.

Gülen repeatedly denied the accusations. “As someone who has suffered several military coups over the past fifty years, it is especially insulting to be accused of having any connection with such an attempt. I categorically deny such allegations,” he said at the time.