In his first comments about the death of his arch-enemy, Turkish-Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, in the United States on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called him and the followers of his faith-based movement “traitors” and vowed to target them in Turkey and beyond its borders, Turkish Minute reported.
Gülen had been living in the United States since 1999 and passed away at a hospital in Pennsylvania on Sunday evening at the age of 83, according to the Gülen-affiliated Herkul website.
Erdoğan, who spoke at a party meeting on Tuesday, condemned the late cleric, with whom he enjoyed friendly relations a decade ago and publicly praised his teachings and worldwide network of schools and charity organizations.
“These traitors managed to evade Turkish justice thanks to the people who protect them. They left without being held to account for the martyrs’ blood they shed. But they will not be able to escape divine justice,” Erdoğan said in a televised address.
Over the past decade Gülen and his movement have faced various accusations from the Turkish government, including masterminding corruption investigations in 2013 and a coup attempt in July 2016 that was suppressed overnight, claiming the lives of some 250 people.
The Turkish government labeled Gülen and his movement as “terrorists” in May 2016.
Gülen and his followers have strongly denied any involvement in the coup or any terrorist activities but have been the subject of a harsh crackdown for a decade, which intensified in the aftermath of the abortive putsch.
Erdoğan said his government would continue its crackdown on the group’s members until it is completely dissolved and will be “on their back” whether they are in Turkey or the farthest corners of the world.
Since the coup attempt, thousands of Gülen’s followers have been arrested and convicted on terrorism charges in Turkey, while many others have fled the country to avoid persecution.
Turkey still regularly rounds up Gülen followers at home and demands their extradition or deportation from countries where his network is active. In some cases, Turkey’s intelligence service has abducted Gülen followers from foreign countries.
In the latest example of the deportation of Gülen people by a foreign country, the Kenyan government confirmed the deportation of four Gülen-linked Turkish nationals after they had been kidnapped by unknown individuals in Nairobi on October 18.
The Turkish citizens were living in Kenya as refugees because they feared persecution in Turkey. The Kenyan government attracted widespread criticism from the United Nations and human rights and refugee groups for violating international law by deporting individuals under UN protection.
Gülen moved to Pennsylvania in 1999, citing health reasons, and from there ran his Gülen or Hizmet (Service) movement, which once operated 4,000 schools in Turkey and 500 others around the world.
The charismatic preacher was stripped of his Turkish citizenship in 2017 as part of the Turkish government’s ongoing war on him.
