Ankara claimed that Gülen, who died at the age of 83, was behind the failed coup to topple Erdoğan in 2016, an accusation Gülen denied.View on euronews

The reclusive opponent of President Erdoğan had inspired a global social movement while facing accusations he plotted the failed 2016 coup.

Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, a longtime bitter rival of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has been blamed for a deadly failed coup attempt in 2016, has died at age 83, according to Turkish officials and social media accounts linked to the cleric’s movement.

The U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who built a powerful Islamic movement in Turkey and beyond but spent his later years mired in accusations of orchestrating an attempted coup against Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan,

Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic preacher who at his peak led hundreds of thousands of Turkish faithful but was accused of plotting a failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has died while in exile in the US.

Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish cleric accused of masterminding a bloody attempted coup in 2016, has died aged 83, according to Turkish media reports. The cleric, who had been living in self-imposed exile in the US,