U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, once an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but later accused of masterminding a failed coup attempt in 2016, has died at the age of 83.
Multiple sources including the Herkul website that publishes Gulen's sermons, the Turkish government, CNN Turk, and the Foundation for Dialogue and Education, an organization affiliated with the Gulen movement in Germany, confirmed on October 21 that Gulen had died a day earlier.
SEE ALSO: Turkey Proves No Safe Haven For Central Asian Activists"Our teacher passed away on October 20, 2024 at 21:20 in the hospital where he had been receiving treatment for a while," the website said in a post on X on October 21, adding that his doctors will make a statement about the situation "in the coming hours."
It did not say what ailment Gulen was being treated for. He had lived in exile in the United States since 1999 and was stripped of his Turkish citizenship in 2017.
CNN Turk quoted a nephew of Gulen's as confirming the Herkul announcement, while Ercan Karakoyun, the chairman of the the Foundation for Dialogue and Education, also said Gulen died a day earlier.
The 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan and the government was a turning point in the country. Some 250 people were killed when rogue soldiers hijacked warplanes, tanks, and other heavy military equipment as they tried to push the president out of power.
That event led Turkey’s government to declare an all-out war on Gulen's network -- known as Hizmet, which means "service" in Turkish -- saying he was responsible for the coup, charges that Gulen fiercely denied.
Turkey considers Hizmet to be a terrorist organization. It is an opaque but influential group mainly involved in educational activities and promoting civil society.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, in confirming Turkish intelligence reports saying Gulen had died, described Gulen as the leader of a "dark organization."
Tens of thousands of dismissals and jailings followed the coup attempt in Turkey, as well as increasingly tense relations between Ankara and any country where Gulen had connections -- mostly through the network of his private schools.
The campaign against Gulen spread into regional allies of Turkey. Some Central Asian governments intensified a crackdown on institutions linked to the cleric that had started before the coup attempt.
In recent years, there have been reports of Turkish citizens accused of having links to Gulen being arrested and forcibly taken to Turkey.
In one such incident, Turkish-Kyrgyz educator Orhan Inandi was abducted by Turkish agents in 2021 in Kyrgyzstan and brought to Turkey against his will. In June of this year, Inandi, who is a dual Kyrgyz-Turkish citizen, was handed 21 years in prison on a charge of "establishing an armed terrorist group."