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Posted on Oct 21, 2024 / Politics

Turkey accused him of attempting a coup and demanded his extradition

Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accused of preparing a coup, has died in the United States, Haberturk reports. His relatives Kemal Gulen and Ebuseleme Gulen also confirmed the information about his death, the BBC Turkish Service writes.

83-year-old Gulen died in a clinic in Pennsylvania. He was previously diagnosed with kidney failure, diabetes, and dementia, CNN Turk notes. Charles Mostoller / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA Gulen had lived in the United States since 1999. In Turkey, he was accused of an attempted coup d'état on July 15-16, 2016. At that time, during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's vacation, the military attempted to take control of strategically important facilities in Ankara, Istanbul and other cities. In particular, a group of conspirators seized an airbase along with the F-16 fighter-bombers stationed there, which were then used to fire on the parliament building. As a result of the two-day clashes in Turkey, more than 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 were injured. More than 300 people received life sentences on charges of attempting to seize power and attempting to assassinate the president.

In Ankara, Gülen is considered the organizer of this attempted coup. Turkey demanded his extradition from the United States and declared the "FETO movement" a terrorist organization. Gülen denied the charges.

Fethullah Gülen is a writer, thinker, and ideologist of the movement he founded in the 1970s called Hizmet (later renamed FETO by Erdogan). The movement he founded became part of the emerging “European Islam,” according to Gülen’s official website. It has several million followers and has been involved, among other things, in opening a network of Islamic schools and universities around the world. Gülen himself spoke out against violence, terror, and suicide attacks, and was the first Muslim theologian to publicly condemn the September 11 attacks in the United States.

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