Fetullah Gülen, the founder of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) allegedly dead at 83, was the perpetrator of the failed July 15 coup attempt in Türkiye.

FETÖ is today widely known to have disguised itself as a so-called religious movement under Gülen, who was born on April 27, 1941, in Türkiye’s eastern Erzurum province.

Gülen began primary school in 1946, in Erzurum and studied at the Kurşunlu Mosque madrassa in 1954.

In 1966, when he was 25, he was assigned to the western Izmir province as the main imam, it is thought that’s when he founded his organization, which would eventually evolve into a terrorist group that mounted a coup attempt, killing at least 252 and injuring thousands in 2016.

Nurettin Veren, the man who built the structure in 1966 together with Gülen and remained close friends until 1996, says about the year that "Gülen came to İzmir from Edirne as a man who had not even finished primary school. His diploma was faked so that he could be an imam as a public servant. He used to take shelter in a small mosque. This is where our paths crossed."

Veren parted ways in 1996 due to Gülen's "cult-like leadership" and his supposed "deep ties with U.S. intelligence."

Until 1971 Gülen served in Izmir where he formalized his operations and met some of his senior operatives.

That year, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) issued a military memorandum to "restore order," and Gülen was arrested by the post-coup junta and spent seven months in prison on charges of reactionary activities. However, he was found not guilty and remained untouched later thanks to his anti-communist propaganda. Gülen was the founder of the Anti-Communist Association in his hometown of Erzurum at the time. After that, Gülen benefited from this anti-communist discourse.

He started to make state propaganda under the pretext of religious teachings in the western province of Balıkesir. Despite the oppressive military atmosphere that hindered any political activity, Gülen benefited from protection and tried to win the favor of state authorities.

Gülen started to write for the monthly Sızıntı (Leak) magazine in 1979, which was published by his followers.

In the wake of the bloody 1980 coup led by Chief of General Staff Gen. Kenan Evren, who toppled the coalition government of center-right Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel, Gülen wrote an editorial for Sızıntı in which he praised the overthrow of the government.

After the coup, the Constitution was suspended, people were tortured to death, political parties were closed and their leaders were questioned, prosecuted and imprisoned.

In the editorial titled "The Last Outpost," Gülen praised the coup. "This is a victory by which the enemy is captured, the body (the government)] is cleansed of viruses and has returned to its roots," he wrote in the article, implying that the military intervention somehow helped Türkiye protect its democracy.

Building influence

In 1981, Gülen resigned as an imam and focused on his network with is close associates. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, FETÖ members geared up interest in business, education and media.

The followers, with interest in industry, education and media, along with operatives in the judiciary, military, police and other state institutions, mobilized all their resources, including newspapers and television stations they owned to attack all that they perceived as opponents.

Launching the Zaman newspaper in 1986 and Samanyolu Television in 1993, Gülenists were building a media empire from scratch as a tool to increase their political influence. At the same time, Gülen's speeches and articles were distributed across the nation.

In November 1991, the first protocol was signed for FETÖ to open a high school in Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The network eventually included hundreds of schools around the world in the 1990s. His charter schools in the U.S. became one of the main funding sources for the illicit organization.

Funds collected from disciples were channeled into schools, media organizations and other projects to help recruit and expand its influence.

Later evidence and testimonies also show that followers began to recruit to infiltrate state institutions, such as the military, bureaucracy and judiciary at this time.

Due to Turkish bureaucracy, particularly the military, branding almost all religious movements as reactionary, excluding them from state institutions in the name of secularism, FETÖ figures were stationed within the military using "taqiyya," based on hiding one's true identity to achieve a goal or remain safe, and seemed to be nonreligious to avoid exclusion.

In line with this, Gülen urged his followers to infiltrate the state in a speech that was captured on video in the early 1990s. "You have to penetrate the arteries of the system without being noticed," he said. "You have to wait for the right moment, until you have seized the entire power of the state," Gülen says in a video.

Another military intervention into politics that Türkiye suffered was the postmodern coup of Feb. 28, 1997, and the democratically elected government was forced to resign. However, Gülen once again had an opportunist approach and tried to benefit from the coup, blaming the government for its failure to justify the coup.

He gave interviews to pro-coup media and said: "You (The government) have failed, now quit," and: "The military is more democratic."

Gülen openly commended the intervention and called on his followers to respect the will of the military.

Last public sighting

In 1999, he fled to the U.S., allegedly for health reasons, including diabetes and dementia, and had been living in a 400-acre property in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, until earlier this year.

According to rumors spurred by Gülen’s nephew Ebuseleme Gülen, the FETÖ leader had been moved from the Chestnut Retreat Center to a new location and the center was emptied in April.

On Oct. 13, in what is likely his last public appearance before his death, Gülen was spotted exiting the new house 12 minutes away from the center.

An Anadolu Agency (AA) crew member caught a glimpse of Gülen riding in the passenger seat of a luxury SUV as it followed another luxury car out of the gates of his secluded new house.

Gülen’s relocation, said to be have been involuntary and not approved by his family, is largely tied to a joint decision by Mustafa Özcan and Cevdet Türkyolu, two key figures of FETÖ close to Gülen allegedly intending to seize the organization’s financial resources after the possible death of its leader.

Türkiye has been demanding Gülen’s extradition from the U.S. since the failed coup, filing 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.