Who is gulen

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You can find more information in our data protection declaration. Turkey has purged and arrested tens of thousand of people all because of one man blamed for the July coup attempt: Fethullah Gulen.

Who is Turkey's public enemy number one and what do we know about his organization? Turkey has arrested nearly 40, people and dismissed some , public servants since the failed July attempt, blamed by the government on US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. The vast majority of them are accused of having links to the so-called Gulen movement, which the Turkish government has branded a terrorist organization called "FETO. Turkey claims that "FETO" is out to topple the government and prepared to step in and run the country once Gulen manages to rise to power using whatever means necessary.

Is this an elaborate conspiracy theory or is there any evidence to support the Turkish government's crackdown on so-called Gulenists under the recently extended state-of-emergency measures? Born in , Gulen was a simple imam for the first half of his life. In an online bio published by the Gulen movement, it says that after retiring from preaching in , his focus shifted from religious to social activities, many of which involved launching new enterprises, particularly media ventures and educational projects - areas which at the time were opening up to privatization.

Gulen's influence in civil society grew steadily throughout the s and s - as did his following: Many of those whom Gulen promoted in his organizations or whose education he funded with his schools have reportedly come to feel a personal debt to the divisive preacher. In , Gulen moved to the US state of Pennsylvania and has been living there ever since. Fethullah Gulen lives on this compound in Saylorburg, Pennsylvania, and is rarely seen in public outside of his prayer circles.

While his supporters cite health reasons for the septuagenarian's residence in the US, others would classify Gulen's decision to move there as self-imposed exile: Gulen left Turkey at a time when he was under investigation for undermining the government - which at that point was still firmly under control of Turkey's secular elite and backed up by the military.

In , he was found guilty, in absentia, of scheming to overthrow the government by embedding civil servants in various governmental offices - an indictment that would come back to haunt him against later. Soon thereafter, the face of Turkey began to change. In , Recep Tayyip Erdogan became prime minister with his recently established Justice and Development Party AKP - despite only getting one-third of the overall vote.

Secularists, in their many millions in Turkey, were unhappy with this development but still welcomed the exponential growth of the Turkish economy in the early s, which perceivedly took place under the AKP leadership. Meanwhile, the AKP's Islamist ideas started to become increasingly commonplace in the country. Against that backdrop, Erdogan and Gulen decided they could embark on a strategic partnership. After being re-elected in with a stronger mandate, the AKP under Erdogan's leadership grew more outspoken with its Islamist ideology.

Within a year, it would reverse the charges against Gulen, signaling a willingness to cooperate with the cleric and his global movement:. Gulen had built up an impressive business empire in the years since his self-imposed exile. His network of media outlets in Turkey and abroad had become increasingly powerful; his schools were grooming the next generation of pious yet entrepreneurially minded followers in Turkey; and his banks facilitated the movement and transfer of funds between the Western world and the Middle East, where some countries' financial affairs are governed by Islamic principles.

Gulen's ties also extended to Central Asia, where former Soviet republics like Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan as well as other nations with Turkic languages welcomed any kind of aid, while feeling a particularly strong sense of kinship with Turkey. Anthropologist Kristina Dohrn, who has been studying the movement for almost ten years in Germany, told DW that the movement evolved into "a global, conservative network with a strong focus on education.

Investigative journalist Ahmet Sik tried to warn the public about Gulen's influence in - and was promptly arrested and his publication banned. All the while, Gulen already had thousands of devout followers working in government positions in Turkey itself - and that network was only growing. His opponents viewed this as a growing underground army, while his supporters stated they were merely trying to increase democracy and dialogue between various social groups through government channels.

Journalist Ahmet Sik tried to warn the public of what he saw as a dangerous influence, penning a book entitled "The Imam's Army" in The government stopped the publication of the investigative work and imprisoned Sik for almost a year.

Sik has been detained several times again since while trying to unearth the full extent of the collaboration between Erdogan and Gulen. Doing business with Gulen was not necessarily an optimal choice for Erdogan in his increasingly authoritarian ways, but in the face of the preacher's influence in Turkey and beyond, it was becoming an obvious marriage of convenience.

Gulen had the right infrastructures in place for Erdogan's growing ambition. Meanwhile, many of Gulen's business dealings were seen as less than transparent, so a partnership to have the government protect his business interests likely seemed equally opportune to him.

Details of the extent of the collaboration between the two are somewhat imprecise; however, it has been noted that high-ranking Turkish government officials have visited the cleric at his compound in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, on multiple occasions after Gulen's official acquittal.

Gulen's publications and television stations were suddenly seen supporting Erdogan's election bid - despite the fact that his organization had always maintained that it didn't seek involvement in any political activities.

With Gulen's support, the AKP managed to win yet again that year, with a result that was just shy of an absolute majority in terms of percentage. The secular classes residing in Turkey's main cities stood by as the secular nation they knew morphed into a state that favored religion over "laicite" - the French brand of separation of religion and state, which the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, had enshrined in the constitution.

Even the rest of the world seemed to welcome this development in hopes of Turkey rising to become a true bridge between Islam and the West - a new "Ottoman Empire," as Erdogan had started to propagate. To realize this vision, Erdogan removed powers from the military, either by parliamentary mandate or by force, jailing many generals who were a thorn in his side. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey returned to Istanbul , signaling that the military coup had faltered.

He suggested that the plotters had tried to assassinate him on Friday with a bombing in the Mediterranean town of Marmaris. At least people died in clashes, including coup supporters. He still lives in the Pennsylvania Poconos to this day.

A month later, Akyol continues, "the real bomb went off: Zekeriya Oz, an Istanbul prosecutor who is widely believed to be a member of the Gulen movement, initiated an early morning raid on dozens of individuals, including the sons of three ministers, an AKP mayor, businessmen and bureaucrats.

However, whether or not they were actually behind the coup attempt may not matter at this point. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all.

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