Erdogan's rival Gülen dies in exile at the age of 83

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ADDS analyst commentary

U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who was accused by Ankara of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016, has died in U.S. exile at the age of 83, his movement and the Turkish government said on Monday.

Turkish-born Gulen, who had lived in the United States since 1999, was once a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the two became bitter enemies.

“Our intelligence sources confirm the death of the leader of the FETO organization,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a news conference, using the Turkish term for Gülen's once-influential Hizmet movement.

Turkish public television TRT reported that the preacher, who had lived in Pennsylvania for a quarter of a century and was stripped of his Turkish citizenship in 2017, died in hospital overnight.

In a message on October” and promised to provide details about his funeral.

Gülen moved to Pennsylvania in 1999, ostensibly for health reasons, and from there ran Hizmet, which at the time had an extensive network of public schools on every continent.

He and Erdogan had a heated argument in 2013, and three years later the Turkish leader accused him of plotting to overthrow him, calling Hizmet “the Fethullah Terror Organization” (FETO).

About 250 people died on July 15, 2016, when a breakaway military group tried to overthrow the Turkish government with warplanes and tanks, with Erdogan blaming Gülen supporters within the military.

“This organization has become a threat rarely seen in the history of our nation,” Fidan said, accusing his supporters of “being used as a weapon against their own country.”

Despite Gülen's death, Turkey will continue “the fight against this organization, which represents a national security problem,” wrote Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc on X.

Gulen was once an ally who helped Erdogan when he became prime minister in the early 2000s. However, in 2010, the relationship with him became strained.

Three years later, Gülen became persona non grata when a corruption scandal engulfed the Turkish prime minister's inner circle.

Erdogan accused Gülen and later accused him of terrorist ties, although the preacher repeatedly insisted that his movement was merely a network of charitable and economic institutions.

After the coup, things got even worse: Authorities persecuted more than 700,000 people and sentenced around 3,000 Gülen supporters to life imprisonment for their alleged involvement in the coup.

Bayram Balci, a researcher at the Paris Institute for Political Studies (Sciences-Po), told AFP the death of the once-charismatic preacher would have little impact in Turkey.

“Since the break with Erdogan in 2010 and especially after the coup attempt in 2016, Gülen’s image has been very bad. Few people value him very much,” he told AFP.

There is no chance Ankara would allow Gulen's body to be returned for burial, and he will likely be buried near his home in Pennsylvania, he said.

Hizmet is “no longer the great movement it once was,” as its influence has declined sharply and its vast network of schools now only operates primarily in Germany, the United States, Nigeria and South Africa.

Turkey still regularly arrests Gülen followers and demands their extradition from countries where his network is active.

Turkish security sources quoted by private broadcaster NTV said very few people were expected at Gulen's funeral and that his body would likely be buried in the United States at a secret location.

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