President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the West of supporting the plotters and warned Washington that relations will suffer if it fails to extradite Pennyslvania-based Gulen.
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For a lot of Turks, the mystery of who was behind the coup was quickly resolved when the Turkish government immediately blamed US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, although Gulen denied any involvement.
Erdogan has grumbled angrily about Gulen’s continued sanctuary in the United States and seeks his extradition.
ANKARA, Turkey – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive in Turkey this month, Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday, amid strained relations with Washington over the possible extradition of a Muslim cleric accused of being behind an attempted military coup last month.
“I’m calling on the United States: What kind of strategic partners are we that you can still host someone whose extradition I have asked for?”
“For me a different question is of decisive importance, namely the question of how to manage the relationship with Turkey in this hard situation and what we can do for those who have been arrested (following a coup attempt)”, he said.
Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving supporters gathered in Istanbul Sunday for a giant rally to mark the end of nightly demonstrations since Turkey’s July 15 abortive coup that left more than 270 people dead. In his turn, Fethullah Gulen denounced this act and said in a statement that “certainly, the ruling regime in turkey lacks judicial independence”. It would be unprecedented and appalling if the United States took a frail, nearly octogenarian [and] plopped him on a plane to go back into that kind of setting with the disgusting things that are being said about him by the entire Turkish government.
The scope of the crackdown has alarmed European countries and rights groups, who have urged restraint.
Rather, they say, it is the next step in a rapprochement with Russian Federation that started weeks before the July 15 attempted putsch.
They speculate over the presence of putschist officers at Incirlik air base, which the USA military also uses.
Turkey on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for Gulen on charges of ordering the coup attempt.
“The American government wants to have somebody more compliant to their agenda”, said Ayse Eren Yusuf, 33, who attended a weeknight vigil at Taksim with her husband.
On the one hand, United States officials have acknowledged the national trauma triggered by the coup attempt.
“I will work to ensure that the dialogue with Turkey does not occur exclusively via megaphones and microphones and cameras”, he said.
In addition to Turkish complaints that the U.S.is sheltering Gulen from prosecution, the coup attempt was followed by widespread reports in Turkish media blaming the USA for knowing about or supporting it.
“They obviously haven’t read the extradition treaty”, he said.
And about 18,000 people have been detained or arrested, mostly from the military, on suspicion of being involved in the failed putsch.
Last week Juncker said there was a “big risk” of the “fragile” deal collapsing, and on Wednesday Kern said that Turkey should not be viewed as a potential candidate for European Union membership, and that its accession process should be stopped.
Senior U.S. leaders are attempting to mend fences with Ankara.
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Since the failed coup, Turkey has jailed more than 10,000 people and suspended more than 50,000 judges, civil servants, and educators under a state of emergency in which expressing ideas similar to those of Gulen is considered a crime. Austrian political observers see a link between Viennese concerns over Turkey and the presidential election re-run in October, where one of two candidates is from the far-right Freedom Party.
