Death of Fethullah Gülen, Erdogan’s enemy accused of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt – What do we know about him?

21st October 2024

2 minutes read

Death of Fethullah Gülen, Erdogan’s enemy accused of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt - What do we know about him?

Turkish Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, accused by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of being behind the failed coup attempt in 2016, has passed away in self-imposed exile in the United States, according to news agencies cited by several Turkish channels on Monday.

Gülen, 83, was Erdogan’s most prominent adversary. Ankara accused him of being responsible for the coup attempt and its mastermind, though he repeatedly denied these allegations.

Fethullah Gülen was born in Turkey on April 27, 1941, in the small village of Korucuk, part of the Hasankale district in Erzurum province. He grew up in a religiously conservative family.

In 1999, he moved to the United States, where he settled in the Pocono Mountains region of Pennsylvania. Living in self-imposed exile, Gülen stayed out of the spotlight and rarely gave interviews, although his movement attracted wide segments of Turkish society and abroad, managing investments worth billions of dollars.

Despite once being a close ally of Erdogan, the two men fell out when the Turkish president began to perceive a threat from Gülen’s movement, accusing it of attempting to establish a parallel state in Turkey.

Gülen had supported Erdogan during his early years in power from 2003, but their disagreements became public in late 2013, after judges, allegedly loyal to Gülen, exposed a corruption scandal within the government led by Erdogan‘s Justice and Development Party (AKP).

This corruption scandal implicated several of Erdogan’s close associates, including his son Bilal. Gülen’s opponents accused him of seeking to infiltrate Turkish society and its institutions.

The “Hizmet” movement, founded by Gülen, advocated for a modern social Islam, but the government accused it of trying to create a parallel state within Turkey.

Gülen is considered a follower of Sufism and is classified as a Sufi in his ideas and religious calls. He was influenced by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, the author of the “Letters of Light,” although they never met.

Despite this mystical aspect, Gülen placed Islam, nationalism, and liberalism on an equal footing, viewing Islam as neither a political ideology, a form of government, nor a type of authority.