Turkey’s government has sent German authorities requests for 40 searches and three extraditions linked to supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S-based Muslim cleric it blames for last month’s attempted coup, magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden is also scheduled to visit next week. Turkey accuses USA -based cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the July 15th coup and has launched a massive crackdown on his movement, detaining more than 40,000 people and dismissing tens of thousands from government jobs.
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On Thursday, Erdogan had said that he personally requested from Obama to have Gulen extradited to Turkey.
He says “we want the process to be accelerated. this man was the leader of the coup”.
While Turkey has repeatedly blamed Gulen for the attempt to overthrow the government – and has jailed thousands of his alleged followers and allies within the country – they haven’t presented formal evidence to the Justice Department so far that he was involved in the coup attempt, the official said.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accuses a network of schools, charities and businesses led by Gulen, and built up in Turkey and overseas over decades, of infiltrating state institutions and orchestrating the failed coup.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Friday (Aug 19) claimed a vehicle bomb attack targeting police in eastern Turkey that killed five people and injured over 200.
Authorities in Turkey have arrested or suspended tens of thousands of police, troops, officials, judges and civil servants due to their alleged links to Gulen’s movement.
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Yildirim said the coup has prompted a restructuring of Turkey’s intelligence services, adding that both its domestic and foreign intelligence services will be strengthened and placed under one umbrella organization.
