Fethullah Gülen, alleged mastermind of Turkey coup plot, dead at 83

Fethullah Gülen, the US-based Muslim cleric who allegedly masterminded the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, has died, said a foundation in Germany linked to his movement. He was 83.

Gülen died on Sunday evening at a hospital in the US state of Pennsylvania, where he spent the last decades of his life in self-imposed exile, said the chairman of the Dialogue and Education Foundation, Ercan Karakoyun, on Monday.

The foundation is the German branch of the transnational Gülen movement, also known as Hizmet, which runs schools, tutoring centres and kindergartens in countries with a Turkish minority.

The spiritual leader and preacher had been in poor health for some time.

Turkey blamed Gulen and his movement for a bloody coup attempt by a faction of the military on July 15, 2016.

Ankara considers his movement a terrorist organization and has arrested thousands of people with suspected links to Gulen over the years.

Gülen is seen by supporters as a scholar whose vision had provided the impetus for Hizmet around the world. The movement seeks to promote a pious Muslim lifestyle through its work in education, the media and associations.

The Dialogue and Education Foundation said it would continue its work following Gülen's death.

The Turkish government welcomed the news. "The leader of this dark organization has died," Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in Ankara.

Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan's government saw Gülen as an arch-enemy and repeatedly demanded his extradition to face trial in Turkey.

Gülen, an Erdoğan ally until publicly breaking with him in 2013, always denied involvement in the 2016 coup attempt, which saw fighting between troops backing the uprising and those loyal to the government in Ankara and Istanbul.

More than 250 were killed and more than 2,000 were injured.

A state of emergency was declared that lasted until July 2018, as the government moved to suppress the alleged plotters and the Gülen movement as a whole. More than 100,000 civil servants were fired by decree, and tens of thousands of people were detained.