Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan leads a cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016. Ankara, though, says it can not do so, given multiple security threats which include the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant presence in neighboring Syria and Kurdish fighters in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
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(AP Photo/Chris Post, FILE). Turkish authorities conducted raids on 44 businesses linked to USA -based cleric Fethullah Gulen on Tuesday.
The 19-year-old company is allegedly linked to preacher Fethullah Gulen, a U.S. based Islamic cleric who Ankara blames for last month’s coup attempt. All face prison terms ranging from two years to life in jail. Gulen denies any involvement.
“We invite the government of Turkey, as we always do, to present us with any legitmate evidence that withstands scrutiny”, he told reporters while visiting Luxembourg in July.
Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday demanded two life sentences plus 1,900 years in prison for US -based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara has blamed for masterminding a failed coup bid last month, local media said. The agency did not identify the companies searched.
“Those responsible for the blood of our martyrs will be brought to account”.
“The death penalty is a one-time death, but, there are greater deaths for them”. But there are worse ways of dying. “That is an impartial and fair trial”. Turkey’s foreign minister spoke to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday about Gulen’s extradition, foreign ministry sources said.
Police also took a former lawmaker for the ruling Justice and Development Party, which Erdogan founded, and seven academics in the Black Sea city of Trazbon into custody, Anadolu reported.
In an 2,527 page indictment approved by prosecutors in the Usak region of western Turkey, Gulen is charged with “attempting to destroy the constitutional order by force” and “forming and running an armed terrorist group” among other charges, the Anadolu news agency reported. Parliament was bombed, while Erdogan escaped an attack on his hotel at a seaside resort.
Erdogan said on Tuesday it was only natural to discuss whether to introduce the death penalty after the botched coup, and blasted Europe for its criticism.
Nevertheless, Erdogan vowed to cut off the revenues of businesses accused of having links to Gulen, a longtime political antagonist, describing them as “nests of terrorism” and promising no mercy in rooting them out.
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Following the failed coup attempt, the Turkish authorities arrested over 17,000 people, while 19,000 were dismissed from their jobs.
