President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday described the faith-based Gülen movement as a “virus” that Turkey has not yet removed, speaking at a memorial service for victims of a July 15, 2016, coup attempt, Turkish Minute reported.
Erdoğan spoke at the Special Operations Directorate in Ankara’s Gölbaşı district during a program that marked the ninth anniversary of the coup and referred to the Gülen movement as FETÖ, a label used by the Turkish government to brand the Gülen movement, a worldwide civic initiative, as a terrorist organization.
“We defeated traitors during the 2013 probes and on July 15, but we have not yet completely removed the FETÖ virus from the body,” he said.
More than 250 people died during the events of that night, which the government claimed was an attempt by military officers to overthrow Erdoğan’s government.
Erdoğan immediately accused the faith-based Gülen movement, led by Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen, of orchestrating the abortive putsch. He had already been targeting the movement since corruption investigations in late 2013 that implicated his inner circle.
Gülen, who lived in self-imposed exile in the United States until his death in October 2024, strongly denied any involvement in the corruption investigations and the coup attempt and called for an independent international investigation into the coup, a demand that was never met.
Although nine years have passed, the Turkish government is continuing its crackdown, not only on the people who were allegedly directly involved in the coup attempt but also on the wider circle of the Gülen movement.
Erdoğan promised to keep the campaign against the Gülen group moving at full speed, saying the authorities would act “without slack, without error” until the movement no longer posed what he called a threat.
Hate speech targeting Gülenists has become institutionalized in Turkey. Erdoğan himself has previously referred to movement members as “viruses,” “leeches” and “terrorists who have no right to life.” The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) recently documented how hate speech surged in Turkey following Gülen’s death in October 2024, with state media intensifying efforts to dehumanize his followers.
The SCF report, “Dehumanizing a Legacy: How Fethullah Gülen’s Death Triggered a Campaign of Hate Speech in Erdoğan’s Turkey,” found that Turkish state media systematically spread hostile rhetoric to justify the continued persecution of Gülenists. The report warned that such dehumanization has historically led to crimes against humanity, emphasizing that rhetoric like “FETO” is not merely a label but a tool for repression.
