An influential US-based Islamic cleric who was accused of masterminding a failed coup in Turkey in 2016 has died.
Fethullah Gulen, who was 83, had been in poor health for a long period and died in a hospital in Pennsylvania on Sunday, according to reports. Turkey’s government also confirmed the death.
The cleric, who moved to the US in 1999, was once an ally of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the pair fell out.
He called Mr Erdogan an authoritarian determined to accumulate power and crush any dissent.
Mr Gulen was never charged with a crime in the US, and he consistently denounced terrorism as well as the attempted coup in Turkey on 15 July 2016, releasing a statement at the time to call links to his involvement “insulting”.
But Mr Erdogan insisted he was a terrorist who had orchestrated the plot when factions within the Turkish military used tanks, planes and helicopters to try to overthrow the government.
Parliament and other government buildings were bombed, while 251 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured as the violence spread.
Mr Gulen continued to deny his involvement in the failed coup, but his movement was designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey.
His supporters have constantly dismissed the accusations as ridiculous and politically motivated.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan confirmed Mr Gulen’s death, describing him as the leader of a “dark organisation”.
Turkey included Mr Gulen on its most-wanted list and demanded his extradition, but the US showed little desire to send him back, saying it needed more evidence.
Mr Gulen lived in Pennsylvania from where he continued to wield influence among his millions of followers in Turkey and throughout the world.
But his movement – sometimes known as Hizmet, which is Turkish for “service” – was subjected to a broad crackdown in Turkey.
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The government arrested tens of thousands of people for their alleged link to the coup plot, sacked more than 130,000 suspected supporters from civil service jobs and at least another 23,000 from the military.
It even closed hundreds of businesses, schools and media organisations which it said had ties to Mr Gulen.
Mr Gulen called the crackdown a witch hunt and denounced Turkey’s leaders as “tyrants”.
