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 dealing with 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 unwell well being, died of pure causes.

The group known as him a “towering determine of religion, knowledge, mental and religious management” whose “influence can be felt for generations.”

Gülen spent the final many years of his life in self-exile, residing 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, training, science and interfaith dialogue.

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

The spiritual chief started as an ally of Turkish chief Recep Tayyip Erdogan however grew to become a foe. He known as Erdogan an authoritarian bent on accumulating energy and crushing dissent. Erdogan solid Gülen as a terrorist, accusing him of orchestrating the tried navy coup on July 15, 2016, when factions inside the navy 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 fees as ridiculous and politically motivated. Turkey put Gülen on its most-wanted record 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 against the law within the U.S., and he persistently denounced terrorism in addition to the coup plotters.

Turkish Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan stated Monday that Gülen’s dying “won’t make us complacent or relaxed. This group has been a risk hardly ever seen within the historical past of our nation.” He known as on Gülen’s followers to show away from “this treasonous flawed path.”

In Turkey, Gülen’s motion — generally referred to 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 navy, and closed lots of of companies, faculties and media organizations tied to Gülen.

Gülen known 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 one way or the other ‘linked’ to me or the Hizmet motion and treats that alleged connection as against the law,” he stated on the primary anniversary of the failed coup.

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

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

On Monday, Turkey’s broadcasting regulator warned in opposition to 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 partaking 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 many years 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 world wide,” 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.

Skilled 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 faculties in additional than 100 nations, together with 150 taxpayer-funded constitution faculties 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 celebration related to Erdogan that got here to energy in 2002.

Gülen had lengthy kept away from overtly supporting any political celebration, however his motion solid a de facto alliance with Erdogan in opposition to 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 celebration 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 inside 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 organising a parallel state and commenced 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 non secular state.

A number of the accusations in opposition to him have been based mostly on a tape recording on which Gülen was alleged to have informed 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 in opposition to 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 largely 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 world wide.

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

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