Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s staunch opponent and the mastermind behind the failed military coup of 2016, religious leader Fethullah Gülen, passed away at the age of 83.
Turkish media and a website associated with Gülen have confirmed that he died in a hospital in the United States after a brief illness.
Fethullah Gülen founded a powerful Islamic movement, Hizmet, in Turkiye and other countries, and at one point, he was an ally of President Erdoğan.
However, due to differences between the two, Gülen separated from the governing alliance.
In 2013, Erdoğan attributed the arrests of 12 members of his party on corruption charges to Gülen’s attempt to establish a solo government in the country and fulfill his own agenda.
As a result, the alliance broke apart, and at Erdoğan’s order, all schools and colleges affiliated with Gülen’s movement in the country were shut down.
On the other hand, Gülen stated in a 2014 interview with American media that authoritarianism had been established in Turkiye for the past two years.
In 2015, Erdoğan’s government declared Gülen a highly wanted terrorist and effectively banned all activities of his organization.
The following year, a failed military coup occurred in Turkiye, with Erdoğan blaming Gülen for it and formally requesting his extradition from the United States.
It is worth noting that Fethullah Gülen moved to the United States in 1999 and remained in self-imposed exile until his death.
President Erdoğan held Gülen responsible for the failed military coup of 2016, although Gülen denied these allegations.
Gülen sought to bring about social change through an educational revolution, establishing model schools worldwide and founding educational and publishing institutions.
He authored 44 books and booklets, the most famous of which is a book on the life of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).
