Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said once more that he sees no difference between terrorist groups such as the PKK, PYD, YPG, and Daesh, and U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen’s FETO, or Fetullah Terrorist Organization, Anadolu reported.
Advertisement
“You have to be blind and deaf not to understand that he is behind all of this”, Mr Erdogan said. Those who “financed the shooters” would be treated like the coup plotters themselves, he said.
Turkey has sent multiparty parliamentary delegations to half a dozen Western countries, including the United States, Canada and Britain, to explain the Erdogan government’s massive crackdown following a failed July 15 coup and press the USA government for extradition of opposition figure Fethullah Gulen.
The Turkish government’s anticipated request for Gulen’s extradition will nearly certainly be handled by the USA courts, but Turkish officials are insisting that it be taken seriously. The cleric has denied any involvement.
Shortly after the attempted coup, Erdogan ordered the arrest and dismissal of tens of thousands of military officers (including hundreds of generals and admirals), police, academics, civil servants, judges, and journalists, as well as closing down hundreds of private schools.
“They have nothing to do with a religious community, they are a fully-fledged terrorist organisation…” We will cut off all business links, all revenues of Gulen-linked business.
The fallout from the abortive coup, in which more than 230 people were killed as mutinous soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks in a bid to seize power, has deepened a rift between Ankara and its Western allies. Numerous dead were civilians.
Turkish authorities has already seized a bank, taken over or closed several media companies, and detained businessmen on allegations of funding Gulen’s movement before the failed coup.
“We’re still reviewing the materials that were submitted by the Turkish government”.
Turkey has called for Gülen to be extradited, especially since the coup.
Turkey’s primary objective is to put an end to the fighting in Syria “without delay and on a permanent basis” because all the negative aspects of the Syrian conflict are immediately felt in the neighbouring country, Kalin said. A spokesman declined to give a reason but said the company, while not questioning its engagement with Turkey, was monitoring the political and economic situation very carefully.
Van reportedly was told that Incirlik was Turkish soil and the USA could do nothing for him. And about 18,000 people have been detained or arrested, mostly from the military, on suspicion of being involved in the failed putsch.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would introduce a package of reforms to encourage investment including removing some taxes, as the government looks to shore up confidence. “I would consider them to be disrespectful of my longtime ideas”, Gulen said in the interview, which was broadcast Sunday.
Germany is the biggest foreign investor in Turkey with investments totalling more than 12 billion euros ($13.3 billion) since 1980, according to the German foreign ministry.
Austria’s Chancellor Christian Kern on Wednesday said the membership talks were “no more than fiction”.
Kern made the comments in a late evening newscast Wednesday.
Advertisement
“It’s disturbing that his statements are similar to those of the far right…” But he did not entirely dismiss them.
