Former ally of Turkish President blamed for the military coup in Turkey

Former ally of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan – Fethullah Gulen – is now being blamed for the attempted coup staged by the nation’s military Saturday leaving 90 people dead. But who is Fethullah Gulen? Fethullah Gulen (AP) (mb.com.ph) Fethullah Gulen is an Islamic leader based in the United States. The 75-year-old was once a supporter of President Erdogan. In fact, Gulen’s Hizmet (Service) movement supported Erdogan’s mildly Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) in its rise to power at the start of the last decade. The Gülen movement (Hizmet in Turkish) is a worldwide civic initiative rooted in the spiritual and humanistic tradition of Islam. From being a supporter, Gulen became a vocal critic and political opponent of the Turkish leader. The two began to have bad blood after Gulen began to question the Turkish President’s increasingly authoritarian streak. Back in 2012, Erdogan blamed Gulen for orchestrating a corruption scandal in [...]