Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric who established a powerful Islamic movement in Turkey and beyond, has passed away at the age of 83. Herkul, a website that publishes Gulen’s sermons, announced his death on Sunday evening from the hospital where he was receiving treatment.
Once an ally of Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan, Gulen’s relationship with him soured dramatically. Erdogan has blamed Gulen for the 2016 attempted coup, during which rogue soldiers seized control of warplanes, tanks, and helicopters, resulting in approximately 250 deaths. Gulen, who had lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. since 1999, consistently denied any involvement in the coup.
Gulen’s movement, known as “Hizmet” (meaning “service” in Turkish), aimed to promote a moderate form of Islam emphasizing Western-style education, free markets, and interfaith dialogue. Following the coup attempt, however, his movement was systematically dismantled in Turkey, leading to a significant decline in its international influence.
Born in 1941 in a village in Turkey’s Erzurum province, Gulen was the son of an imam and began studying the Koran at an early age. He became a mosque imam in Edirne in 1959 and rose to prominence in the 1960s as a preacher in Izmir, where he established student dormitories and preached in local tea houses. This marked the beginnings of an informal network that would expand over decades into various sectors, including education, business, media, and government, granting his supporters considerable influence both in Turkey and abroad.
Gulen had been a close ally of Erdogan and the ruling AK Party until tensions escalated in December 2013 when corruption investigations involving Erdogan’s close associates emerged. The Turkish government later issued an arrest warrant for Gulen in 2014, designating his movement as a terrorist organization two years later.
Following the coup attempt in 2016, Erdogan branded Gulen’s network as traitorous, vowing to eradicate its influence. This led to the closure of hundreds of schools, companies, and media outlets linked to Gulen, with significant arrests and suspensions of state workers occurring under emergency rule. Gulen condemned the coup attempt and expressed that it was insulting to be accused of any involvement, given his own history of suffering under military coups.
Once a significant figure in Turkish society, Gulen became increasingly isolated, viewed with hostility by Erdogan’s supporters and shunned by opposition groups who accused his network of undermining the secular foundations of the Turkish republic. The Turkish government has long sought his extradition from the United States.
In a 2017 interview, Gulen, who was living in a gated compound in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, stated he had no plans to flee the U.S. to evade extradition. He had traveled to the U.S. for medical treatment and remained there amid ongoing criminal investigations in Turkey.
