Fethullah Gulen, reclusive cleric accused of masterminding 2016 Turkey coup, dies in the US
Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen meets members of the media at his compound in Saylorsburg, Pa. in July 2016
FETHULLAH GULEN, a reclusive US-based Islamic cleric who faced accusations he masterminded a failed 2016 coup in his native Turkey, has died.
Mr Gulen, who was in his eighties and had long been ill, spent the last decades of his life in self-exile, living in a gated compound in Pennsylvania.
He began as an ally of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan but became a foe. He called Mr Erdogan an authoritarian bent on accumulating power and crushing dissent.
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