Thousands mourn Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish spiritual leader who died in the US

AUGUSTA, N.J. (AP) — A crowd surged forward to Fethullah Gülen’s grave on Thursday, straining to get one more chance to pay their respects to the influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States.

After an outdoor service in New Jersey that drew thousands of people, Gülen was buried on the grounds of the Chestnut Retreat Center, a sprawling, gated compound in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains where he lived and worked for a quarter-century.

Gülen, who inspired a global social movement while facing unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 military coup against Turkey's president, died Sunday at a Pennsylvania hospital. He was in his 80s.

He was remembered Thursday as a religious leader who encouraged his followers to devote themselves to God and to charitable good works.

“We all feel like we’ve lost a father,” Usame Tunagar, a longtime associate, told mourners. “We all feel like as if we are orphaned. There is right now a huge void in our lives.”

But Tunagar said Gülen will live on through his books and sermons, and through the thousands of schools and other institutions worldwide started by his followers.

“What is alive is his legacy,” he said.

Under a heavy police presence, family, friends and followers filled a small stadium in northern New Jersey for a prayer service, which was conducted largely in Turkish, with Islamic prayers and readings in Arabic from the Quran.

Followers who served as pallbearers either studied under Gülen directly or attended a school inspired by his movement. They walked into the stadium carrying his the casket, which was draped in a green-and-gold covering inscribed with verses from the Muslim holy book.

Organizers said a brother and a sister were in attendance. Another brother is imprisoned in Turkey.

No memorial services are expected to take place in Turkey, as publicly mourning, glorifying or otherwise sympathizing with Gülen there may lead to imprisonment on charges of promoting and supporting terrorism.

After the service in New Jersey, hundreds gathered at Gülen's burial in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, on the grounds of the Islamic retreat center. The crowd squeezed into a tight perimeter around the burial site, with mourners pressing in to grab a handful of dirt to throw into the grave.

Mina Turkyolu, a 22-year-old grand-niece of Gülen whose father was a close associate of the religious leader for 50 years, said she remembers Gülen as having a “warm and big heart." She said she remembers sitting on his lap as a small child and Gülen giving her chocolate. But she said she was always mindful of his position.

“Even though we are family, anyone you would ask, he's never really been considered as family. He’s always been more of a holy and noble person that you've always looked up to. So he's always been an inspiration for all of us, for millions of people,” she said.

Gülen had long been one of Turkey’s most important scholars, with legions of followers in his native country and around the world. He had lived in the United States since 1999, when he came to seek medical treatment.

His philosophy blended Sufism — a mystical form of Islam — with staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue. His acolytes built a loosely affiliated global network of charitable foundations, professional associations, businesses and schools in more than 100 countries, including 150 taxpayer-funded charter schools throughout the United States.

The religious leader began as an ally of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan but became a foe. He called Erdogan an authoritarian bent on accumulating power and crushing dissent. Erdogan cast Gülen as a terrorist, accusing him of masterminding the attempted coup on July 15, 2016, when factions within the military used tanks, warplanes and helicopters to try to overthrow the government.

A total of 251 people were killed and around 2,200 others were wounded. Around 35 alleged coup plotters were killed.

Shortly after the coup attempt, the normally reclusive cleric summoned reporters to his living quarters at the Pennsylvania compound to deny any knowledge or involvement in its planning. He said he wouldn’t have returned to Turkey even if the coup had succeeded, fearing he would be “persecuted and harassed.”

“This is a tranquil and clean place and I enjoy and I live my freedom here,” Gülen said of the secluded Islamic retreat, founded by Turkish Americans, that he adopted as his home and where he would be buried eight years later. “Longing for my homeland burns in my heart, but freedom is also equally important.”

In Turkey, Gülen’s movement — sometimes known as Hizmet, Turkish for “service” — has been subjected to a broad crackdown. The government arrested tens of thousands of people for their alleged link to the coup plot, sacked more than 130,000 suspected supporters from civil service jobs and more than 23,000 from the military, and closed hundreds of businesses, schools and media organizations tied to Gülen.

The Turkish government reacted to his death this week by vowing to keep up the pressure on the Gülenist movement. Erdogan said Gülen had suffered a “dishonorable death” and likened him to a “demon in human form.” He pledged the movement would be “completely eliminated.”

Gülen was never charged with a crime in the U.S., and the U.S. government had rejected Turkey’s demands to extradite him. The cleric consistently denounced terrorism as well as the coup plotters.

Mustafa Yilmaz, 46, taught chemistry at Gülen-affiliated schools abroad and in Turkey until 2016, when he fled his home country amid Erdogan’s crackdown and was granted asylum in Canada.

Yilmaz, who lives in Toronto, traveled to New Jersey for Gülen's funeral. He called it an “important task for me to be here.”

“We're always going to follow what he left us,” Yilmaz said.

A casket bearing the body of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the United States and faced unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 coup in Turkey, sits in Skylands Stadium in Augusta, N.J., where thousands gathered for funeral prayers on Thursday Oct. 24. 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

Fethullah Gulen's sister, Fazilet Korucuk, in blue head covering, touches his casket at a prayer service in Augusta, on Thursday, Oct. 24, in Augusta, New Jersey.(AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

Thousands gather to morn the death of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the United States who faced unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 coup in Turkey, in Skylands Stadium in Augusta, N.J., on Thursday, Oct. 24. 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

A casket bearing the body of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the United States who faced unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 coup in Turkey, sits in Skylands Stadium in Augusta, N.J., where thousands gathered for funeral prayers, Thursday, Oct. 24. 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

Thousands gather to morn the death of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the United States who faced unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 coup in Turkey, in Skylands Stadium in Augusta, N.J., on Thursday, Oct. 24. 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

Mourners carry the casket of Fethullah Gülen, an influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States, at a funeral prayer service, Thursday, Oct, 24, 2024, in Augusta, N.J. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Mourners carry the casket of Fethullah Gülen, an influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States, at a funeral prayer service, Thursday, Oct, 24, 2024, in Augusta, N.J. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Mourners carry the casket of Fethullah Gülen, an influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States, at a funeral prayer service, Thursday, Oct, 24, 2024, in Augusta, N.J. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Mourners carry the casket of Fethullah Gülen, an influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States, at a funeral prayer service, Thursday, Oct, 24, 2024, in Augusta, N.J. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

A casket bearing the body of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the United States and faced unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 coup in Turkey, sits in Skylands Stadium in Augusta, New Jersey, where thousands gathered for funeral prayers on Thursday Oct. 24. 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

Mourners carry the casket of Fethullah Gülen, an influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States, at a funeral prayer service, Thursday, Oct, 24, 2024, in Augusta, N.J. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Mourners grieve Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish spiritual leader who died in US

FILE - Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen speaks to members of the media at his compound in Saylorsburg, Pa. in July 2016. (AP Photo/Chris Post, File)

Mourners grieve Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish spiritual leader who died in US

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Russia and Ukraine are due to hold their first direct peace talks in three years Friday, gathering in Istanbul for Turkish-brokered negotiations, but officials and observers expect them to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more than 3-year war.

A Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was due to meet with a low-level Russian team headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.

The latest push to end the fighting got off to a rocky start on Thursday, when Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned an offer by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face. Delegations from the two countries also flew to different Turkish cities and put together teams of significantly different diplomatic heft for possible talks.

Although expectations for a possible Putin-Zelenskyy meeting were low, the apparent lack of traction in peace efforts frustrated hopes of bold steps being taken in Turkey toward reaching a settlement.

The two sides are far apart in their conditions for ending the war, and U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday during a trip to the Middle East that a meeting between himself and Putin was crucial to breaking the deadlock.

On Friday, Trump said a meeting with Putin would happen “as soon as we can set it up.”

“I think it’s time for us to just do it,” Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

Ukraine has accepted a U.S. and European proposal for a full, 30-day ceasefire, but Putin has effectively rejected it by imposing far-reaching conditions.

Meantime, Russian forces are preparing a fresh military offensive, Ukrainian government and Western military analysts say.

After Putin didn’t take up Zelenskyy’s challenge to sit down with him in the Turkish capital on Thursday, the Ukrainian president accused Moscow of not making a serious effort to end the war by sending a low-level negotiating team that he described as “a theater prop.”

Even so, Zelenskyy said that he was sending a team headed by his defense minister to Friday’s meeting in Istanbul. That would show Trump that Ukraine is determined to press ahead with peace efforts despite Russian foot-dragging, Zelenskyy said, amid intense diplomatic maneuvering by Kyiv and Moscow.

The Russian delegation also includes three other senior officials, the Kremlin said. Putin also appointed four lower-level officials as “experts” for the talks.

A flurry of diplomatic activity took place in Istanbul before the talks.

Ukrainian officials held an early-morning meeting with national security advisers from the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom to coordinate positions, a senior Ukrainian official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The U.S. team was led by retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, while Umerov and presidential office chief Andriy Yermak represented Ukraine, the official said.

A three-way meeting between Turkey, the U.S. and Ukraine also took place, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said. The U.S. side included Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as Kellogg.

Rubio on Thursday said he didn't foresee major developments in Istanbul.

“We don’t have high expectations of what will happen tomorrow. And frankly, at this point, I think it’s abundantly clear that the only way we’re going to have a breakthrough here is between President Trump and President Putin,” Rubio told reporters Thursday in Antalya, Turkey.

Zelenskyy, meantime, flew to Albania to attend a meeting Friday of the leaders of 47 European countries to discuss security, defense and democratic standards against the backdrop of the war.

Aamer Madhani in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Vehicles begin arriving outside a gate prior to expected talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations at the Dolmabache palace, in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Dilara Acikgoz)

Vehicles begin arriving outside a gate prior to expected talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations at the Dolmabache palace, in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Dilara Acikgoz)