US-based Muslim cleric and Erdogan foe Fethullah Gulen dies at 83, Turkish TV says

By AFP 21 October 2024, 9:58 am

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Turkish Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen is pictured at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, September 24, 2013. (AP/Selahattin Sevi)

Turkish public television reports that US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says masterminded a failed 2016 coup, has died.

Citing posts on X and social media by groups close to Gulen, they say the 83-year-old died in hospital overnight.

Gulen, who led a movement called Hizmet, was accused by Turkey of leading a “terrorist” group and being the brains behind an abortive coup to topple strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government in 2016 — accusations he had consistently denied.

Gulen had lived in Pennsylvania since 1999. He was stripped of his Turkish nationality in 2017.