FETÖ terror group’s top brass thrives in luxury in US
So-called top members of FETÖ lead luxurious lives on money raised as donations for the terrorist group and continue serving their ringleader Fetullah Gülen
NEARLY eight years after they mounted a coup attempting to overthrow the Turkish government on July 25, 2016, so-called senior members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) enjoy luxurious lives in the United States, where they fled to avoid prosecution in Türkiye.
Some 18 fugitives who were close to ringleader Fetullah Gülen, including members of the group’s so-called consultation and religious information boards, live in the U.S., which hosts the largest FETÖ network, where Gülen also resides without restrictions.
Gülen still presides over his organization’s consultation board, which is decked with members who served as so-called imams of Türkiye and oversaw money transactions and “secret formations.”
Most of these fugitives escaped to the U.S. before the foiled coup and were to return to Türkiye with Gülen if their attempt had been successful. Instead, they lead hassle-free lives on funds raised as so-called “donations” for FETÖ.
Gülen’s private doctor, Kudret Ünal, one of his first devotees, Ismail Büyükçelebi, financial supervisor Ismet Aksoy and closest confidant and top aide Cevdet Türkyolu are among the fugitives living across various U.S. states.
The terrorist group is still operating on a covert level, but it’s not without internal troubles.
Türkyolu and another fugitive, Osman Şimşek, one of the lieutenants to Gülen, even got into a brawl in 2021 when Şimşek was ejected from a posh retreat with Gülen and his entourage in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. Türkyolu apparently punched Şimşek and ordered him to leave the compound when the latter read a letter to Gülen about the questionable wealth of Türkyolu. The letter was sent by a follower of the terrorist group who questioned how Türkyolu amassed a wealth of $30 million (TL 920.97 million), which was reportedly a “wellknown fact” among FETÖ members, including in other countries.
It was the first time such infighting at the senior level had occurred inside the tightly knit group, which built an international network over decades.
The terrorist group founded its global network in the form of schools and associations while disguising itself as an international nonprofit organization with religious undertones long before the coup attempt.
Türkiye often complains of failures in international cooperation against terrorism and the extradition issue stands out among those failures. The country, which fights against threats from multiple terrorist groups, expects the same stance from the international community, particularly its allies.
In 2018, Gülen, who lives in a compound operated by FETÖ in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, praised the Western countries assisting group members. Addressing fellow FETÖ members in a video titled “Foreign lands, emigration, shahada and service,” Gülen said that many countries, including Germany, Canada, the U.S. and “partially” France, had helped them.
“They said rent a house and we will pay for it ... Germany has done this, so has Canada and France (partially) and the U.S. and other places,” Gülen, who rarely made appearances following the coup attempt, said in the video.
An unknown number of FETÖ members, mostly high-ranking figures, fled Türkiye when the coup attempt was thwarted. Many of the group’s members had already left the country before the coup attempt after Turkish prosecutors launched investigations into other crimes of the terrorist group.
The U.S. is the subject of most extradition requests. Türkiye has sent several extradition requests for Gülen to Washington but, unfortunately, has seen little progress on this subject.
Ankara formally requested Gülen’s extradition on July 19, 2016, and has been pressing the U.S. ever since, sending hundreds of folders full of evidence implicating Gülen and FETÖ in the coup attempt. The issue has been raised in bilateral meetings between Turkish and American officials in phone calls, letters and other exchanges.
In the meantime, Turkish authorities arrested or detained thousands of suspects linked to FETÖ following the coup attempt that killed 251 people. The terrorist group faces operations almost daily as investigators still try to uncover their massive network of infiltrators everywhere – from military and police to judiciary and bureaucracy.
Since July 2016, Turkish security forces captured a total of 3,739 FETÖ fugitives who tried to escape to Greece via the land border in the northwestern province of Edirne.
In 2023 alone, authorities caught 739 FETÖ suspects on the border, including expelled soldiers, judges, prosecutors, police officers and academics.
These fugitives often try to blend in with irregular migrants or collaborate with other terrorist groups like the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) and the PKK, which has massacred over 40,000 civilians in a four-decade campaign of terror.
For droves of FETÖ members, Greece was and remains the most accessible destination to flee to as a gateway to Europe, where they are tolerated. FETÖ members usually spend a short time in Greece before moving to other European countries, with Germany being the most popular destination.