Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has squarely blamed Gulen for the recent unsuccessful coup
Even as Turkish investigations into the failed coup attempt point fingers towards the Pennsylvania-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen , demands for his extradition as well clamping down his activities worldwide will soon put India into a dilemma. While narrating sequence of events of Friday night, Turkish Ambassador in India Dr. Burak Akcapar confirmed that his country has asked India to shut down activities and also institutions run by Gulen’s organisation.
“They have a presence in various Indian cities. We expect Indian government to curb their activities. We think, they have no place. We had consultations with Indian government and will now follow up. We have passed all information to the Ministry of External Affairs,” said the Ambassador.
The cleric Gulen is better known as a spiritual leader who is behind many schools and colleges and coaching centres for various professional courses. Delhi and Hyderabad have the maximum number of schools, with some such institutions and coaching centres located in small towns in the north as well. The preacher and his movement have a presence in over 100 countries.
Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has also squarely blamed Gulen, who is in self-imposed exile in United States since 1999. Like al over world, Gulen’s Hizmet movement is involved in interfaith dialogue in India as well. The Delhi-based think-tank Indialogue Foundation, which draws inspiration from Gulen organisers annual Gandhi Jayanti Seminar and has been partnering government in various cultural and academic events. The spokesperson of the organisation rejected Turkish allegations, saying that Erdogan blames almost all oppositional development in Turkey on Hizmet as a pretext to purge state and civil society. “It is especially insulting to be accused of having any link to such an attempt. Both Fethullah Gulen’s teachings and the Hizmet participants’ works around the world on dialogue, democratic engagement, active citizenship and social cohesion is the embodiment of this commitment,” said the spokesman.
Gulen was an ally of Turkish President before 2013. The alliance was destroyed after the 2013 corruption investigations in Turkey. Erdogan accused Gulen of being behind the corruption investigations. Currently, he is on Turkey's most-wanted-terrorist list. He is accused of leading what the current Turkish officials call the Gulenist Terror Organisation (FETO). Western countries, who have investigated Gulen have absolved him of any terrorist connection.
Erdogan has demands that the United States extradite Gulen and not differentiate between terrorists. But the US insists Turkey first provide evidence of Gulen's complicity in the takeover attempt, creating renewed tensions between the two NATO allies.
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 "Turkey, Fethullah Gulen, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Burak Akcapar, Turkey Coup, NATO, Hyderabad")
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