A look at the Turkey coup crisis and how it unfolded.

AS THE Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan tries to wrestle back control of his country from a dissenting faction of the military, he has blamed one man for being behind the attempt to overthrow the government.

Exiled Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen was once a friend and ally of president Erdogan but according to the man struggling to maintain power, Gulen’s followers were behind the latest coup attempt in the country.

So who is he? And why is Erdogan trying to lay the blame for the military uprising at his feet?

A former friend of the Turkish president, Mr Gulen has for years lived as a recluse a compound in Saylorsburg, in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, USA.

From there he has led the US arm of his so-called Gulen movement named the Alliance For Shared Values which describes itself as “an umbrella non-profit organisation serving as a voice for civic, culture and service organisations” across Turkey.

What’s been dubbed as the Gulen movement, or Hizmet, promotes a version of Islam that embraces science, education and interfaith dialogue. According to some reports, about 10 per cent of the Turkish population is estimated to support Hizmet.

It’s important to note, the major political fault line that divides Turkish society pits secular proponents of modern democratic nation states on one side, and proponents of Islamic-based law on the other.

Erdogan’s AKP party has been increasingly moving towards the latter.

Fethullah Gulen and his followers can be seen as somewhat of a bridge between the secularists and Islamists.

Gulen’s unique brand of Islamic-informed governance has gained him millions of followers, and therefore considerable power. But despite his embrace of certain secular values such as interfaith dialogue, science and education, he is still viewed with suspicion by Turkey’s secular establishment.

Gulen was once a close ally of Erdogan but the two fell out as the president became suspicious of the powerful presence Hizmet has in Turkish society, including the media, police and judiciary.

The preacher moved to the United States in 1999, before he was charged with treason in his native country.

The power struggle between the two foes came to a head in late 2013 after judicial officials thought to be close to Gulen brought corruption charges that directly implicated some of Erdogan’s inner circle, including his son Bilal.

Since then Erdogan has stepped up his battle against his exiled rival, purging the military and police force of Gulen supporters, closing schools operated by the Gulen movement and shutting down media outlets and journalists sympathetic to Gulen’s ideas.

Turkish authorities and his opponents have accused the preacher of seeking to establish “a state within a state” in the middle eastern democracy.

International lawyer for the Turkish government Robert Amsterdam — who had a feature interview published on the front page of Sabah newspaper in Turkey about the danger posed by Gulen — said in a statement Friday evening that he and his firm “have attempted repeatedly to warn the US government of the threat posed” by Fethullah Gulen and his movement.

He said that according to Turkish intelligence sources, “there are signs that Gulen is working closely with certain members of military leadership against the elected civilian government”.

However it's a charge that Gulen has “categorically” denied.

“I condemn, in the strongest terms, the attempted military coup in Turkey,” he said in an emailed statement reported by The New York Times. “Government should be won through a process of free and fair elections, not force.”

“I pray to God for Turkey, for Turkish citizens and for all those currently in Turkey that this situation is resolved peacefully and quickly,” he added.

Turkey has a long history of coup attempts and the accusation levelled at Gulen by Erdogan is part of a familiar rhetoric.

Whether Gulen is directly involved or not remains a matter for debate and it goes without saying that Erdogan’s words should not be taken at face value.

Regardless of the personalities behind the uprising, fear over the Turkish president becoming increasingly autocratic appears to be the catalyst for the coup.

The army feels it role is to preserve democracy. Erdogan’s paranoia about coups, jailing of journalists, cracking down on anyone whose ‘conspiracies’ undermine his authority and recent dismissal of key military figures and firing of police chiefs appear to have emboldened it to move.

It seems not to have been entirely successful, but it remains to be seen if it will embolden the exiled Gulen and his supporters.