Death of U.S. cleric from Turkey ends a chapter of international intrigue
Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen attends a funeral of Bayram Yuksel at Fatih mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, in November 1997. Credit: AP
Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who preached tolerance, died this week at age 83 in a Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania hospital, where his attending physician announced he died of natural causes, having long been in poor health. For a quarter-century, Gülen lived on a large retreat in the Poconos.
The Gülen movement, known as Hizmet (Turkish for “service”), has run numerous secular charter schools in the U.S. The Turkish Cultural Center in Ronkonkoma posted Tuesday on social media: “He dedicated his life to raising generations that believe in different religions, faiths and intercultural dialogue and peace.”
News of his death has political relevance in the U.S. — due to years of denunciation and extradition efforts by his nemesis, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They were once allies. But Erdogan in 2016 began blaming Gülen without clear evidence for allegedly backing an attempted coup against the Ankara government that killed hundreds.
Erdogan and his subordinates tried repeatedly but failed during both the Trump and Obama presidencies to have Gülen extradited even as Gülen and his followers consistently denied any role in the coup attempt.
Surprisingly, the authoritarian Erdogan’s enmity for Gülen came up in the criminal investigation of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The federal indictment alleges a transactional relationship between Adams and the Turkish government which prosecutors described as “taking improper and illegal benefits from foreign nationals.”
Adams was Brooklyn borough president in 2016 and, allegedly, was already receiving free luxury travel through Turkish Airlines. But the indictment says a Turkish government official warned him this “support” would end if he didn’t cut his cordial ties with a community center in his borough.
The center, Adams was told, was “affiliated with a Turkish political movement that was hostile to Turkey’s government,” according to the indictment. The center has since been identified in published reports as one of those promoting Gülen’s teachings. “Adams acquiesced,” the indictment said.
But that year, Adams was far from the most connected public figure with whom the Erdogan government could push its agenda. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, while a key surrogate in Donald Trump’s first campaign, was reportedly paid more than $500,000 through his partnership with a business with ties to Erdogan.
As Trump won the White House, Washington-based outlet The Hill published a commentary by Flynn attacking Gülen as a threat and a fraud and urging the U.S. to “adjust our foreign policy to recognize Turkey as a priority.” For a short time, Flynn became national security adviser, later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about election interference, and still later, was pardoned by Trump.
Still, efforts to “get” Gülen continued. By 2019, it was reported that Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, kept pushing the White House to have the cleric deported. But Giuliani was apparently rebuffed; the case was to be the domain of the Justice Department.
On Thursday, at a small ballpark in Sussex County, New Jersey, a prayer service attended by thousands was held for Gülen, conducted largely in Turkish, The Associated Press reported. No such services are expected in Turkey, where any gathering honoring Gülen could result in criminal charges by the Erdogan government.
Thus ends for now the story of how an allied nation’s internal conflict worked its way into the highest levels of U.S. and New York City government.
Columnist Dan Janison’s opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.