Fethullah Gulen, exiled Turkish cleric, dies — reports

Several Turkish media outlets say Gulen died while receiving treatment in a hospital. Gulen was a Muslim cleric who the Turkish government had accused of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016.

Media outlets in Turkey on Monday reported that US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen — who the Turkish government in Ankara blame for orchestrating a failed coup in 2016 — has died at age 83. 

The Herkul website, which publishes Gulen's sermons, said on its X account that Gulen had died on Sunday evening in a hospital after being treated for a long-term illness.

Gulen's passing was also reported by broadcaster NTV and the TRT state news agency. 

Ankara's 2016 failed coup allegations

The Gulen movement, a globally active religious movement with more than 4 million members, is not a centralized or formal organization, but a set of networks inspired by Gulen.

Gulen, a former ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's, who lived in exile in the US state of Pennsylvania, denies accusations of involvement in the failed coup and condmened the attempt "in the strongest possible terms."

"As someone who suffered under multiple military coups during the past five decades, it is especially insulting to be accused of having any link to such an attempt," he said in a statement from 2016.

Ankara has designated his movement a terrorist group, naming it the Fethullahist Terror Organization, or FETO.

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

The failed coup of 2016 in which some 250 people were killed, resulted in tens of thousands of civil servants in various sectors being jailed and removed from their positions.

Turkish authorities have systematically dismantled Gulen's footprint in Turkey since the events of of July 15, 2016.

More to come... 

kb/wmr (Reuters, AFP)