site.btaTurkish Media Speculate Who Will Inherit Gulen's Organization, Its Assets

Following the death of Turkish Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen, named by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the mastermind of the 2016 coup attempt, Turkish media have been commenting on who will succeed him at the helm of his organization with offshoots in many countries around the world and, not least, who will establish control over its assets, estimated at USD 300-400 million in schools and real estate worldwide.

Gulen died on Sunday in a hospital in the United States where he had been living for many years.

The leader is dead, the fight for the enormous holdings has begun, OdaTV commented.

According to the Sabah daily columnist Abdurrahman Simsek, Suat Yildirim will most probably be chosen to be Gulen’s heir. He is known to have lived in the same apartment with Gulen in the city of Edirne as early as 1960, which is why he is considered to have been closest to him during his lifetime and the most knowledgeable about the organization. He graduated from a religious academy in Ankara in 1964.

According to other sources, however, Mustafa Ozcan has also been tipped as Gulen's successor.

The comments about the Islamic preacher's death in both the pro-government and the opposition Turkish press are full of negative qualifications about him.

"The leader of this dark organization is dead," Turkiye's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a news conference on Monday, adding that Turkiye's determination to fight terrorism would see no let up.

"The terrorist Fethullah Gulen, a traitor and enemy of religion who spent his entire life plotting against the Republic of Turkey, has died. We do not give him our pardon," the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation TRT announced.

Allegedly, according to OdaTV, despite the preacher's will to be buried in Turkiye, it is not possible to do so, and the funeral ceremony will be at the estate of his relative by marriage, Cevdet Turkoglu, in the state of Pennsylvania, where Gulen lived in recent years.