Self-exiled Turkish spiritual leader Fethullah Gülen dies in Pennsylvania

SAYLORSBURG, Pa. — Fethullah Gülen, a reclusive U.S.-based Islamic cleric who impressed a world social motion whereas going through unproven accusations that he masterminded a failed 2016 coup in his native Turkey, has died.

The Alliance for Shared Values, a New York-based group that promotes Gülen’s work within the U.S., stated that Gülen died Sunday night time at a hospital close to his house in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. Monroe County Coroner Thomas Yanac Jr. stated he was knowledgeable that Gülen, who was in his eighties and had lengthy been in ailing well being, died of pure causes.

The group referred to as him a “towering determine of religion, knowledge, mental and religious management” whose “impression will probably be felt for generations.”

Gülen spent the final a long time of his life in self-exile, dwelling in a gated compound and wielding affect amongst his hundreds of thousands of followers. He espoused a philosophy that blended Sufism — a mystical type of Islam — with staunch advocacy of democracy, schooling, science and interfaith dialogue.

Gülen had not performed an energetic function in his motion lately. A gaggle of shut buddies who’ve suggested him for many years will keep it up the work, in keeping with the Alliance for Shared Values.

The non secular chief started as an ally of Turkish chief Recep Tayyip Erdogan however turned a foe. He referred to as Erdogan an authoritarian bent on accumulating energy and crushing dissent. Erdogan solid Gülen as a terrorist, accusing him of orchestrating the tried army coup on July 15, 2016, when factions inside the army used tanks, warplanes and helicopters to attempt to overthrow the federal government.

Heeding a name from the president, hundreds took to the streets to oppose the takeover try. The coup plotters fired at crowds and bombed parliament and different authorities buildings. A complete of 251 individuals have been killed and round 2,200 others have been wounded. Round 35 alleged coup plotters have been killed.

Gülen adamantly denied involvement, and his supporters dismissed the costs as ridiculous and politically motivated. Turkey put Gülen on its most-wanted listing and demanded his extradition, however the USA confirmed little inclination to ship him again, saying it wanted extra proof. He was by no means charged with a criminal offense within the U.S., and he persistently denounced terrorism in addition to the coup plotters.

Turkish International Minister Hakan Fidan stated Monday that Gülen’s demise “is not going to make us complacent or relaxed. This group has been a risk not often seen within the historical past of our nation.” He referred to as on Gülen’s followers to show away from “this treasonous improper path.”

In Turkey, Gülen’s motion — typically generally known as Hizmet, Turkish for “service” — has been subjected to a broad crackdown. The federal government arrested tens of hundreds of individuals for his or her alleged hyperlink to the coup plot, sacked greater than 130,000 suspected supporters from civil service jobs and greater than 23,000 from the army, and closed lots of of companies, colleges and media organizations tied to Gülen.

Gülen referred to as the crackdown a witch hunt and denounced Turkey’s leaders as “tyrants.”

“The final 12 months has taken a toll on me as lots of of hundreds of harmless Turkish residents are being punished just because the federal government decides they’re by some means ‘linked’ to me or the Hizmet motion and treats that alleged connection as a criminal offense,” he stated on the primary anniversary of the failed coup.

Ozgur Ozel, the chief of Turkey’s principal opposition Republican Individuals’s Occasion, stated Gülen’s huge community remained a risk to Turkey.

“The founder is lifeless however the group stays. Nobody ought to assume that this hazard has handed or is over. Everybody ought to be on guard towards this group,” Ozel stated.

On Monday, Turkey’s broadcasting regulator warned towards content material praising Gulen, saying no broadcaster can honor a “terrorist.” In the meantime, prosecutors within the northwestern province of Bursa launched an investigation right into a journalist on potential expenses of participating in terrorist propaganda, the state-run Anadolu Company reported, after she stated she hoped he would relaxation in heaven.

Abdulhamit Bilici, who was editor of the Gulen-affiliated Zaman newspaper when Erdogan shut it down in early 2016, stated Monday that Gulen was subjected to a long time of persecution in Turkey, and that Turkey is the one nation that claims Gülen’s peaceable Hizmet motion is a terror group.

“He was a supply of inspiration for hundreds of thousands of individuals, not simply in Turkey, however all over the world,” Bilici stated in an interview on the Pennsylvania retreat heart the place Gulen lived. “So this can be a very unhappy day and a day of reflection, mourning and pondering and prayer.”

Fethullah Gülen was born in Erzurum, in jap Turkey. His official delivery date was April 27, 1941, however that has lengthy been in dispute. Y. Alp Aslandogan, who leads a New York-based group that promotes Gülen’s concepts and work, stated Gülen was truly born someday in 1938.

Educated as an imam, or prayer chief, Gülen gained discover in Turkey some 50 years in the past. He preached tolerance and dialogue between faiths — assembly with Pope John Paul II in 1998 — and he believed faith and science may go hand in hand. His perception in merging Islam with Western values and Turkish nationalism struck a chord with Turks, incomes him hundreds of thousands of followers.

Gülen’s acolytes constructed a loosely affiliated world community of charitable foundations, skilled associations, companies and colleges in additional than 100 nations, together with 150 taxpayer-funded constitution colleges all through the USA. In Turkey, supporters ran universities, hospitals, charities, a financial institution and a big media empire with newspapers and radio and TV stations.

However Gülen was considered with suspicion by some in his homeland, a deeply polarized nation break up between these loyal to its fiercely secular traditions and supporters of the Islamic-based social gathering related to Erdogan that got here to energy in 2002.

Gülen had lengthy shunned overtly supporting any political social gathering, however his motion cast a de facto alliance with Erdogan towards the nation’s previous guard of staunch, military-backed secularists, and Gülen’s media empire threw its weight behind Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented authorities.

Gülenists helped the governing social gathering win a number of elections. However the Erdogan-Gülen alliance started to crumble after the motion criticized authorities coverage and uncovered alleged corruption amongst Erdogan’s interior circle. Erdogan, who denied the allegations, grew weary of the rising affect of Gülen’s motion.

The Turkish chief accused Gülen’s followers of infiltrating the nation’s police and judiciary and establishing a parallel state and started agitating for Gülen’s extradition to Turkey even earlier than the failed 2016 coup.

The cleric had lived in the USA since 1999 when he got here to hunt medical remedy.

In 2000, with Gülen nonetheless within the U.S., Turkish authorities charged him with main an Islamist plot to overthrow the nation’s secular type of authorities and set up a spiritual state.

Among the accusations towards him have been primarily based on a tape recording on which Gülen was alleged to have instructed supporters of an Islamic state to bide their time: “If they arrive out too early, the world will quash their heads.” Gülen stated his feedback have been taken out of context.

The cleric was tried in absentia and acquitted however by no means returned to his homeland. He received a prolonged authorized battle towards the administration of then-President George W. Bush to acquire everlasting residency within the U.S.

Not often seen in public, Gülen lived quietly on the grounds of an Islamic retreat heart. He left principally solely to see docs for illnesses that included coronary heart illness and diabetes, spending a lot of his time in prayer and meditation and receiving guests from all over the world.

Gülen by no means married and didn’t have kids.

___

Related Press author Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.