Türkiye Gülen, the face of Turkish Islam, ally and later enemy number one of Erdogan, died

Sick for a long time, he died yesterday at the age of 83 in his exile in the United States. For decades he was one of the most influential figures in the country, before taking refuge in the United States and being accused of orchestrating the failed coup d’état of 2016. His movement had a network of hundreds of schools, even abroad. A supporter of interreligious dialogue, in 1998 he visited Saint John Paul II in Rome.

Istanbul () – The Turkish preacher and Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who for decades was one of the most influential figures in the country and a supporter of President Recep’s rise to power, died yesterday at the age of 83 in his exile in Pennsylvania (United States). Tayyip Erdogan, before becoming his number one enemy. The distancing grew deeper and deeper and in the summer of 2016 it culminated in the Ankara government’s accusation of having orchestrated the attempted coup d’état that for a few hours shook the institutions and cast more than a shadow over the future of the nation. and its leader. A very harsh repression then began, launched in response by Erdogan himself and his party, which led to the arrest and purge of tens of thousands of army officers, government officials, magistrates and members of institutions accused of being “Gulenists.” Over the years the Islamic preacher repeatedly rejected the accusations and denied any involvement.

So far, the Turkish authorities have not officially commented on the news of the death of the political and religious leader, who had been suffering from health problems for some time.

Before ending up in President Erdogan’s sights and being accused of being “the mastermind of the (failed) coup d’état of July 2016”, Fethullah Gülen had been one of his closest allies and symbolized the return of the religion to the life of the country. This new political line radically changed the secular imprint that its founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had given to modern Turkey, as well as the social order guaranteed for decades by the secularism of the military, and led to the religious drift of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). ) currently in power. Analysts and experts consider him one of the most influential figures of recent decades in culture and interreligious dialogue, and the most important “modern Islamic theologian and political scientist” due to his relationship with the head of state and the decision to exile.

Born in 1941 in Erzurum, in the southeast of the country, the son of an imam, Gülen was a great disciple of Said Nursi, a mystic of Kurdish origin who died in 1960 who, although he supported orthodox and conservative Islam, declared that, since could deny modernity, it was necessary to confront it. In the ’70s Gülen organized summer camps in Izmir where the principles of Islam were taught, which gave rise to the first network of houses for students, the “houses of light.” Still tolerated by the State, it then moved on to the construction of the first schools, and later universities, media, groups and associations that involve society to make a “modern Turkish Islam” a reality, in which religion and nationalism are inextricably linked. intertwined.

In 1998 the National Security Council accused and prosecuted him for “attempt to undermine the country’s secular system” after an “appearance of a democratic and moderate image.” Convicted in absentia, to escape from prison Gülen opted for voluntary exile in the United States and took refuge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he continued to weave a network that made him the owner of more than 300 private (Islamic) schools in Turkey. To these were added 200 abroad (from Tanzania to China, Morocco and the Philippines, passing through the former Soviet republics where Turkish-speaking minorities are very strong), a bank, television channels and newspapers, a website in 12 languages and charities. A financial empire valued at billions of dollars by some estimates.

The success of the Hizmet movement (“The Service”, in Turkish) that he founded is based on the voluntary work of thousands of people, willing to spread education even and especially where institutions and economic possibilities are lacking. Intellectuals and diplomats from around the world have spread the ideas of Gülen, whom they consider a promoter of peace and interreligious dialogue. In the 1950s Said Nursi preached to Muslims to join Christians in opposing atheism and he himself sought contact with Pius XII and Patriarch Athenagoras. Fethullah Gülen, following the same example, officially adopted positions in favor of interreligious dialogue in Turkey, establishing links with all Christian Churches in the country and maintaining relations with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I and the Armenian Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan. He himself requested a meeting with Pope John Paul II, which took place in Rome in 1998, and met with the Sephardic chief rabbi of Jerusalem, Eliyahu Baksi Doron.

At the basis of speeches, teachings and more than 60 books on Islam and interreligious dialogue was the idea of ​​reestablishing links between state and religion as in Ottoman times, and giving Turkey a centralizing role in relation to the Balkans. and the Caucasian republics, with a nationalist imprint. His brotherhood, very active for a long time even in the police, part of the judiciary and in private education, supported Erdogan’s AKP in the fight against secular power when it won the elections for the first time in 2002. However, in the In later years the relationship between Erdogan and Gülen began to deteriorate until he became the number one enemy of the president and the establishment in power in Ankara.

The authorities then launched a veritable witch hunt against the Islamic preacher and his followers, which worsened even more after the failed coup d’état, in which 250 people died and which shook Erdogan’s power. By some estimates, there are more than 77,000 people in prison awaiting trial, and meanwhile arrests continue. Authorities also suspended or dismissed 150,000 public officials or members of the military. Over the years, Ankara has repeatedly requested his extradition, which has always been rejected by Washington and has caused a crisis in relations between the two countries. Activists and experts have repeatedly denounced selective attacks against tens of thousands of alleged opponents, intellectuals, activists, national and foreign personalities, soldiers and judges, teachers, intellectuals and ordinary citizens. Repressions and purges that, from his exile in the United States, Gülen himself had defined as “the sign of the betrayal of the founding values ​​of modern Turkey.”