Cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused of 2016 coup against Turkey's Erdogan, passes away in US
Saylorsburg, Oct 21: Fethullah Gulen, a reclusive US-based Islamic cleric who inspired a global social movement while facing accusations he masterminded a failed 2016 coup in his native Turkiye, has passed away.
Abdullah Bozkurt, the former editor of the Gulen-linked Today's Zaman newspaper, who is now in exile in Sweden, said on Monday that he spoke to Gulen's nephew, Kemal Gulen, who confirmed the death. Fethullah Gülen was in his eighties and had long been in ill health.
The state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan as saying the death has been confirmed by Turkish intelligence sources.
Gulen spent the last decades of his life in self-exile, living on a gated compound in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains from where he continued to wield influence among his millions of followers in Turkiye and throughout the world.
He espoused a philosophy that blended Sufism — a mystical form of Islam — with staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue.
Gülen began as an ally of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but became a foe. He called Erdogan an authoritarian bent on accumulating power and crushing dissent. Erdogan cast Gülen as a terrorist, accusing him of orchestrating the attempted military coup on the night of July 15, 2016, when factions within the military used tanks, warplanes and helicopters to try to overthrow Erdogan's government.
Heeding a call from the president, thousands took to the streets to oppose the takeover attempt. The coup-plotters fired at crowds and bombed parliament and other government buildings. A total of 251 people were killed and around 2,200 others were wounded. Around 35 alleged coup plotters were also killed.
Gülen adamantly denied involvement, and his supporters dismissed the charges as ridiculous and politically motivated. Turkiye put Gulen on its most-wanted list and demanded his extradition, but the United States showed little inclination to send him back, saying it needed more evidence. Gulen was never charged with a crime in the US, and he consistently denounced terrorism as well as the coup plotters.
In Turkiye, Gulen's movement — sometimes known as Hizmet, Turkish for “service” — was subjected to a broad crackdown. The government arrested tens of thousands of people for their alleged link to the coup plot, sacked more than 130,000 suspected supporters from civil service jobs and more than 23,000 from the military, and shuttered hundreds of businesses, schools and media organisations tied to Gulen.
Gulen called the crackdown a witch hunt and denounced Turkiye's leaders as “tyrants”.
“The last year has taken a toll on me as hundreds of thousands of innocent Turkish citizens are being punished simply because the government decides they are somehow connected' to me or the Hizmet movement and treats that alleged connection as a crime,” he said on the one-year anniversary of the failed coup.
Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan said on Monday that Gulen's death “will not make us complacent. Our nation and state will continue to fight against this organisation, as they do against all terrorist organisations”.
Fethullah Gulen was born in Erzurum, in eastern Turkiye. His official birth date was April 27, 1941, but that has long been in dispute. Y. Alp Aslandogan, who leads a New York-based group that promotes Gulen's ideas and work, said Gülen was actually born sometime in 1938.
Trained as an imam, or prayer leader, Gulen gained notice in Turkiye some 50 years ago. He preached tolerance and dialogue between faiths, and he believed religion and science could go hand in hand. His belief in merging Islam with Western values and Turkish nationalism struck a chord with Turks, earning him millions of followers.
Gülen's acolytes built a loosely affiliated global network of charitable foundations, professional associations, businesses and schools in more than 100 countries, including 150 taxpayer-funded charter schools throughout the United States.
In Turkiye, supporters ran universities, hospitals, charities, a bank and a large media empire with newspapers and radio and TV stations.
But Gulen was viewed with suspicion by some in his homeland, a deeply polarised country split between those loyal to its fiercely secular traditions and supporters of the Islamic-based party associated with Erdogan that came to power in 2002.
Gulen had long refrained from openly supporting any political party, but his movement forged a de facto alliance with Erdogan against the country's old guard of staunch, military-backed secularists, and Gulen's media empire threw its weight behind Erdogan's Islamic-oriented government.
Gulenists helped the governing party win multiple elections. But the Erdogan-Gulen alliance began to crumble after the movement criticized government policy and exposed alleged corruption among Erdogan's inner circle. Erdogan, who denied the allegations, grew weary of the growing influence of Gulen's movement.
The Turkish leader accused Gulen's followers of infiltrating the country's police and judiciary and setting up a parallel state, and began agitating for Gulen's extradition to Turkiye even before the failed 2016 coup.
The cleric had lived in the United States since 1999, when he came to seek medical treatment.
In 2000, with Gulen still in the US, Turkish authorities charged him with leading an Islamist plot to overthrow the country's secular form of government and establish a religious state.
Some of the accusations against him were based on a tape recording on which Gulen was alleged to have told supporters of an Islamic state to bide their time: “If they come out too early, the world will quash their heads.” Gulen said his comments were taken out of context.
The cleric was tried in absentia and acquitted, but he never returned to his homeland. He won a lengthy legal battle against the administration of then-President George W. Bush to obtain permanent residency in the US.
Rarely seen in public, Gulen lived quietly on the grounds of an Islamic retreat centre in the Poconos. He occupied a small apartment on the sprawling compound and left mostly only to see doctors for ailments that included heart disease and diabetes, spending much of his time in prayer and meditation and receiving visitors from around the world.
Gulen never married and did not have children. It is not known who, if anyone, will lead the movement.
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Adani Group emerges lowest bidder for Bengaluru’s 16.75-km tunnel road project
Bengaluru: The Adani Group has become the lowest bidder for both packages of the proposed 16.75-km tunnel road project in Bengaluru, according to sources familiar with the bids opened by Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Ltd (B-SMILE).
According to a report published by Deccan Herald on Monday, the government estimated the entire project to cost Rs 17,698 crore, while the Adani Group has quoted Rs 22,267 crore. The ports-to-power conglomerate’s bid is about 24% higher for the first package and 28% higher for the second than the government’s estimates, a gap that could prompt authorities to seek the state Cabinet’s approval on the tenders’ fate.
M Maheshwar Rao, Chief Commissioner of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), who is also the Managing Director of B-SMILE, declined to comment.
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In all, four infrastructure companies had participated in the tenders for the project, which has been proposed under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, with 40% funding from the government and the remaining investment to be raised by the private concessionaire.
During the technical evaluation, the Adani Group and the Hyderabad-based Vishwa Samudra Engineering Ltd qualified for the financial round.
According to the report, Dilip Buildcon was disqualified due to a clause that bars firms linked to collapsed bridges or tunnels, while Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) was rejected because its joint venture (JV) partner did not meet technical requirements.
With only two companies left in the fray, the Adani Group emerged as the lowest bidder, ahead of Vishwa Samudra.
The tunnel project officially named the North–South underground corridor, is part of the Congress government’s ambitious to ease Bengaluru’s traffic congestion by building two major underground roads (totalling 40 km) along with 13 flyovers and elevated corridors.
The project is the brainchild of Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, who is also the Bengaluru development minister.
The proposal, however, has faced criticism and political opposition, especially from senior BJP leaders, who object to the alignment that requires acquiring six acres of Lalbagh Botanical Garden, a historic green space.
As per the report, Urban mobility experts have also warned that the tunnel corridor may clash with the alignment of Namma Metro’s Phase 3A, possibly affecting the metro expansion.
