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Gülen ‘seizing’ US town with corrupt links, locals say
Gülen ‘seizing’ US town with corrupt links, locals say
Two residents of a town in Pennsylvania, United States claimed the local administration has a corrupt relationship with U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen and his followers, who are trying “to seize” the area, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported on July 3. Click through for the story in photos...
Seventy-two year-old David Bonser, who owns the Kostonbador estate near Saylorsburg where Gülen resides, alleged that “new buildings just pop up without any permit” in the complex the Islamic cleric lives.
“They do anything they want. I do not know what kind of relationship the local administration has with them, but I do not agree with this management. The state would punish me long ago if I had done the things they have done,” he was quoted as saying.
Bonser singled out Howard A. Beers, a local businessman, claiming he was the “protector” of Gülenists in Saylorsburg, a census-designated place and unincorporated community in the Ross Township of Monroe County.
John Favere, another local who has a cleaning business, told the agency Beers had publicly defended Gülen during a town hall meeting on June 6, 2016, while introducing himself as the mayor and admitted he built Gülen’s estate.
“If you are close to Gülen, you can obtain construction permits here. If you are not, you cannot. Gülen controls the town administration,” Favere was quoted as saying.
He went on to claim Gülen had kept buying new plots of land to “seize” the town.
Anadolu Agency reported that Beers did not respond to its questions.
The Gülen network, which the Turkish authorities refer to as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), and its leader Gülen are widely believed to have orchestrated the failed coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people killed and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also accuses the Gülen network of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
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