He was considered public enemy number one in Turkey. President Erdogan blamed Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen for the 2016 coup attempt. Now he is dying in exile in the US.
The suspected mastermind of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, Fethullah Gülen, is dead. The 83-year-old cleric died on Sunday evening in a hospital in the US state of Pennsylvania, said the chairman of the Dialogue and Education Foundation, Ercan Karakoyun. The foundation is the German branch of the transnational Gülen movement, which runs schools, tutoring centers and kindergartens in Germany, among other things.
Gülen was an influential Muslim scholar whose vision provided the impetus for the global Hizmet movement, the foundation said. The aim of the movement is to win Muslims over to a pious way of life through educational institutions, media and club work. It will continue to exist in the future, it said. The movement said that Gülen had been in poor health for several years.
Turkish media had previously reported on the death of the Islamic preacher. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also confirmed the death. “The leader of this dark organization has died,” Fidan said in Ankara.
Gülen is public enemy number one for Erdogan
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan viewed Gülen as public enemy number one. Erdogan believes he was the mastermind of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey and has repeatedly called for his extradition. Gülen, who was allied with Erdogan until the public break in 2013, had always denied his involvement. He has lived in the US state of Pennsylvania since 1999.
On July 15, 2016, parts of the military in Turkey staged a coup against President Erdogan’s government. There were heavy fighting between coup soldiers and pro-government security forces in Istanbul and the capital Ankara. The uprising was eventually crushed. More than 250 people died and more than 2,000 were injured.
Under the state of emergency that Erdogan subsequently declared and which only ended in July 2018, the government took action against suspected putschists and supporters of Gülen’s movement, but also against members of the opposition. More than 100,000 civil servants were fired and tens of thousands of people were arrested by decree. In Turkey, the Gülen movement is classified as a terrorist organization.
Source: Stern
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