Fetullah Gülen, the U.S.-based leader of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), was spotted at a new address, confirming allegations that he had been moved from his main residence earlier this year amid what has been called “infighting” in the organization.
Gülen lived in a sprawling estate in Pennsylvania for over two decades, which he used as the headquarters of the terrorist group that orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in which 252 people were killed and over 2,700 were wounded in Türkiye.
But in May this year, rumors surfaced, spurred by Gülen’s nephew Ebuseleme Gülen, that the FETÖ leader had been moved from the Chestnut Retreat Center to a new location and the center was emptied in April.
Gülen, who has been coping with serious health issues including dementia due to his advanced age, was spotted on Sunday in a rare appearance since then exiting the new house at 260 Kennel Road in Saylorsburg, 12 minutes away from the center.
An Anadolu Agency (AA) crew member caught a glimpse of Gülen riding in the passenger seat of a luxury SUV as it followed another luxury car out of the gates of his secluded new house, a 300-square-meter (3,229 square feet) three-bedroom that sits in the heart of a 12-hectare lush forest.
Footage captured by AA shows security cameras closely guarding the property.
While the AA crew was filming the compound with a drone, people inside called the police on the reporters. Officers told the press crew that Gülen’s house was private property and warned them to be careful with the traffic on the road passing by the gates.
According to F-Watch, a website of former FETÖ members seeking to inform the public about the group’s wrongdoings, Gülen’s relocation was involuntary and not approved by his family, which was publicly confirmed by Gülen’s biological brother Mesih Gülen.
The move is tied to a joint decision by Cevdet Türkoğlu and Mustafa Özcan, two key figures of FETÖ close to Gülen.
F-Watch says Türkyolu was responsible for the personal care of Gülen and is “known for his intentions to seize the organization’s financial resources after the possible death of its leader.”
Özcan is described as one of the lead actors in the 2016 coup attempt.
F-Watch said the new house is worth $1 million and was purchased by Meserret LLC, a company owned by Türkyolu and his children in 2023.
Türkyolu has already faced backlash from several members of the group active on social media for what they called cases of fraud and threats targeting other members and unsuspecting donors of the group.
Türkyolu has rejected allegations in a recent YouTube video even though he is listed as the owner of numerous properties worth billions of dollars, according to F-Watch.
The website noted that the properties were acquired by Türkyolu “through exploitation of the untransparent and uninspected FETO financial mechanism.”
For decades, FETÖ amassed a fortune through direct donations of its members and through charities where money donated by unsuspecting donors was funneled to senior cadres of the group.
At its height in Türkiye, the group controlled a network of companies, a bank and hundreds of prep schools and private colleges.
F-Watch describes itself as a civilian initiative “seeking to unveil the dangerous nature of FETÖ, an entity without democratic legitimacy, an entity that targets individual freedoms and aims to control society using a fanatically indoctrinated minority."
“We will continue to reveal the facts about FETö which is not a threat only for Türkiye but also the countries it operates in,” a statement on the website says.
The website also delves into the shady past of Gülen and lists names and photos of prominent figures of the group who are on the run. One section of the website is devoted to crimes of FETÖ in Türkiye, including illegal wiretapping while other sections shed light on its network of charter schools in the U.S. and activities in other countries.
At the original compound, Gülen presided over his organization’s consultation board, 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 "donations" for FETÖ.
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.
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, including hundreds of folders full of evidence implicating Gülen and FETÖ in the coup attempt, but U.S. officials have not approved this, saying that what Türkiye submitted falls short of the standard required. The refusal to extradite has long been a thorn in the side of Turkish-U.S. relations.
