Fethullah Gülen, the cleric accused of masterminding the failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016, has died at the age of 83 in Pennsylvania, US, where he had been living in self-imposed exile since 1999.
His death was initially reported by social media accounts linked to his followers and his nephew Ebuseleme Gülen. Herkul.org, a website associated with the Gülen group, confirmed that he had been receiving treatment for a while and died on Oct 20 at 9.20 pm.
Born on Apr 27, 1941 in Turkey’s eastern province of Erzurum, Gülen became a follower of Said Nursi, an influential Sunni Muslim theologian, in his teenage years. In 1959, he was appointed as an imam affiliated with the Presidency of Religious Affairs.
In the following years, he built his religious community and became a well-known figure in the country by the 1990s. He maintained good relations with prominent politicians across the political spectrum, including center-left leader Bülent Ecevit, center-right figures Süleyman Demirel and Tansu Çiller, and nationalist Alparslan Türkeş.
The alliance with the AKP
Accused of infiltrating various state institutions, including the police, judiciary, and military, Gülen group once maintained close ties with Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). During this time, the “Ergenekon” and “Balyoz” cases in the late 2000s and early 2010s resulted in the purge of numerous military officers on accusation of plotting a coup against then-PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government. The Gülen group was claimed to be the mastermind behind these trials through its members in the judiciary.
The alliance between the AKP and the Gülen group began to unravel in Feb 2012, when prosecutors summoned Hakan Fidan, then-head of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), as a suspect in an investigation related to the activities of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In response, parliament swiftly passed a new law requiring the prime minister's permission for high-ranking officers to appear before a prosecutor. This prevented prosecutors from taking Fidan's testimony, and the investigation stalled.
In December 2013, a corruption investigation targeted Erdoğan's inner circle, including his son Bilal Erdoğan and four ministers. The investigation targeted an alleged scheme to help Iran evade western sanctions via gold trade through Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank. The accused allegedly got large amounts of bribes from the Iranian businessperson Reza Zarrab in the process. Zarrab became a confessor in the US in 2017, which prompted a lawsuit against the bank in this country.
The government viewed this investigation as an overthrow attempt by the Gülen group. It marked the breaking of the alliance publicly, with pro-government outlets openly turning against the Gülen group and labeling it a “parallel state structure.”
The unraveling of the AKP-Gülen alliance was followed by the release of many Balyoz and Ergenekon suspects, with both cases eventually leading to the acquittal of hundreds of defendants in 2015 and 2019, respectively.
The coup attempt
In May 2016, the government officially declared the Gülen group as a “terrorist organization,” referring to it as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ). The group was accused of orchestrating the coup attempt on Jul 15, 2016, which led to the deaths of 251 people, most of whom were civilian supporters of Erdoğan who had taken to the streets to oppose the coup.
In the aftermath of the coup, tens of thousands of civil servants were purged from various institutions, and many were arrested.
Gülen denied any involvement in the coup attempt and. In fact, he never admitted that he led a hierarchical organization but described his community as a loose network of the followers of his teachings.
Following the coup attempt, Turkey made repeated efforts to secure Gülen's extradition from the US. The Justice Ministry officially requested his extradition seven times, citing 27 different charges. However, US authorities did not fulfill the requests, citing insufficient evidence. In Turkey, Gülen was the main suspect in 45 separate trials, facing charges that ranged from attempting to dismantle the constitutional order to organizing an armed terrorist group.
The accusations against Gülen included charges of attempting to overthrow the Turkish government through force and violence, founding and leading an armed terrorist organization, espionage, and plotting the assassination of the president. Other allegations involved corruption, forgery, and stealing state exam questions to aid his followers in gaining positions of influence within Turkish institutions. (VK)