I think the problem with this for the U.S. is there is no evidence at all that
Fethullah Gulen did anything wrong at all just like there is no evidence that most people who have lost their jobs or are imprisoned did anything wrong either. Likely it is just Erdogan getting rid of anyone who is not an Islamist in the country either financially by making it so they will never work again in Turkey or imprisoning them. There likely is no real evidence at all that Gulen did anything at all in regard to the coup. Hopefully it comes out sooner or later that Erdogan did the whole thing. However, this could not happen from Turkey only from another country.
Fethullah Gulen did anything wrong at all just like there is no evidence that most people who have lost their jobs or are imprisoned did anything wrong either. Likely it is just Erdogan getting rid of anyone who is not an Islamist in the country either financially by making it so they will never work again in Turkey or imprisoning them. There likely is no real evidence at all that Gulen did anything at all in regard to the coup. Hopefully it comes out sooner or later that Erdogan did the whole thing. However, this could not happen from Turkey only from another country.
begin quote from:
ISTANBUL
— Turkey’s top diplomat urged the United States on Friday to quickly
hand over a self-exiled cleric who Turkish leaders have linked to last
week’s coup attempt — an issue that ris
Pro Erdogan supporters wave a Turkish national flag during a rally at Bosphorus bridge in Istanbul, one of the key battlegrounds in Friday night's coup attempt. (Umit Turhan Coskun/AFP/Getty Images)
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run broadcaster TRT that Turkey was ready to take part in a commission proposed by Washington to discuss the extradition of Fethullah Gulen. But Cavusoglu insisted there was no need for it to take a long time.
“If you want to draw out the Gulen extradition issue it can take years, but if you are decisive it can be completed in a short period,” he said in remarks carried by the Reuters news agency.
Following a failed July 15 coup by renegade military units, Turkey has carried out a widespread crackdown on the army, police, judiciary and educational institutions, arresting, firing and suspending tens of thousands of people on suspicion of sympathies to Gulen.
The government maintains that followers of Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, were behind the attempted overthrow and has demanded he be returned to Turkey. But the United States has demanded clear evidence of the cleric’s involvement.
Any blows to U.S.-Turkish relations could spill over to other crises around the region.
NATO-member Turkey is a critical front-line partner in the fight against the Islamic State and efforts to control the flow of migrants into Europe. There also is concern that Turkish society and freedoms could come under much tighter control amid the purges and probes following the unsuccessful coup.
Gulen has denied any link to the plot, implying instead that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan staged it as part of a bid to consolidate power.
The president, meanwhile, called on Turks to continue nightly protests a week after the coup, calling it an “antidote” to the coup.
“I am requesting my heroic nation, which thwarted the armed coup attempt with its foresight and courage, to continue the democracy watch on the streets until our country gets out of this difficult situation for good,” he said late Thursday.
The president added that more than 10,000 people have been detained so far. Among them is one of Turkey’s most prominent human rights defenders, Orhan Kemal Cengiz, who was stopped at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport and transferred to a local police station.
Tens of thousands of others have been put under investigation. In an earlier speech, Erdogan emphasized the need for a “cleansing” of society and the existence of a “virus” in the military.
Earlier, Turkey declared a temporary suspension of a European-drafted rights pact that covers issues such as detention and searches. Lawmakers also granted the government to rule by decree under emergency powers for at least the next three months. The decrees can be overruled by parliament but are not subject to review by Turkey’s Constitutional Court.
The hard-line moves contrasted sharply with an effort by Turkish officials to reassure the country that the post-coup upheavals would not harm the economy or cause permanent harm to Turkey’s relations with the West.
After a military coup in 1980, martial law was imposed in Turkey. And Turkey imposed emergency rule over its restive Kurdish regions in the southeast in 1987, lifting it 15 years later.
But it has never done so for the entire country. Emergency rule grants authorities special powers to use the military and other security services to break up demonstrations and other public gatherings.
Western leaders have been increasingly uncomfortable with the crackdown.
In Washington, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Turkey’s allies will be “closely watching” Erdogan’s next moves.
“We are going to continue to urge them to protect the kinds of democratic traditions and institutions that helped them repel the coup in the first place and are critical to Turkey’s success in the future,” Earnest told reporters Thursday.
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