The July 15, 2016 coup attempt was the last straw for some members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) seeking to sever ties with the group. The quelled attempt exposed the extent of FETÖ’s clout and sparked dissent among FETÖ members. F-Watch, founded in 2021 by several members of the group aspires to inform the public more about the wrongdoings of the group that long disguised itself as a so-called religious movement.
F-Watch became more prominent after it disclosed the new location of FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen in the United States, where he has been living for more than two decades. Gülen’s relocation within Pennsylvania where he resided in Chestnut Retreat Center owned by people close to FETÖ has been a source of speculation in media outlets. F-Watch says Gülen, who has been coping with serious health issues including dementia due to his advanced age, left the Center in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania in April 2024 and moved to a house at 260 Kennel Road in Saylorsburg.
The website says Gülen was involuntarily moved to the new address and points out that Gülen’s biological brother Mesih Gülen publicly stated that the move was not approved by his family. Relocation is tied to a joint decision by Cevdet Türkyolu and Mustafa Özcan, two key figures of FETÖ close to Gülen. F-Watch says Türkyolu was responsible for the personal care of Gülen and is “known for his intentions to seize the organization’s financial resources after the possible death of its leader.” Özcan is described as one of the lead actors in the 2016 coup attempt that killed 251 people in Türkiye.
According to F-Watch, the house where Gülen was taken is worth $1 million and was purchased by Meserret LLC, a company owned by Türkyolu and his children. Türkyolu has already faced a backlash from several members of the group active on social media for what they called cases of fraud and threats targeting other members and unsuspecting donors to the group. Türkyolu has rejected allegations in a recent YouTube video despite the fact that he is listed as the owner of numerous properties worth billions of dollars according to F-Watch. The website noted that the properties were acquired by Türkyolu “through exploitation of the untransparent and uninspected FETO financial mechanism.” For decades, FETÖ amassed a fortune through direct donations of its members and through charities where money donated by unsuspecting donors was funneled to senior cadres of the group. At its height in Türkiye, the group controlled a network of companies, a bank, and hundreds of prep schools and private colleges.
F-Watch describes itself as a civilian initiative “seeking to unveil the dangerous nature of FETÖ, an entity without democratic legitimacy, an entity that targets individual freedoms and aims to control society using a fanatically indoctrinated minority.
“We will continue to reveal the facts about FETö which is not a threat only for Türkiye but also the countries it operates in,” a statement on the website says.
The website also delves into the shady past of Gülen and lists names and photos of prominent figures of the group who are on the run. One section of the website is devoted to crimes of FETÖ in Türkiye, including illegal wiretapping while other sections shed light on its network of charter schools in the U.S. and activities in other countries.
Gülen has lived in his U.S. compound since 1999 and used it as the headquarters of the terrorist group. It was Gülen’s nephew, Ebuseleme Gülen, who claimed in a social media post last summer that the FETÖ leader had been kidnapped from his residence in the U.S., which hosts the largest FETÖ network.
Here, Gülen presides over his organization’s consultation board, which is decked with members who served as so-called imams of Türkiye and oversaw money transactions and “secret formations.” Most of these fugitives escaped to the U.S. before the foiled coup and were to return to Türkiye with Gülen if their attempt had been successful. Instead, they lead hassle-free lives on funds raised as "donations" for FETÖ.
Türkiye often complains of failures in international cooperation against terrorism and the extradition issue stands out among those failures. The country, which fights against threats from multiple terrorist groups, expects the same stance from the international community, particularly its allies.
An unknown number of FETÖ members, mostly high-ranking figures, fled Türkiye when the coup attempt was thwarted. Many of the group's members had already left the country before the coup attempt after Turkish prosecutors launched investigations into other crimes of the terrorist group.
The U.S. is the subject of most extradition requests. Türkiye has sent several extradition requests for Gülen to Washington, including hundreds of folders full of evidence implicating Gülen and FETÖ in the coup attempt, but U.S. officials have not approved this, saying that what Türkiye submitted falls short of the standard required. The refusal to extradite has long been a thorn in the side of Turkish-U.S. relations.
