The purge is worrying Western allies concerned about stability in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member and partner in the fight against Islamic State.
Advertisement
“I think this is a very important statement”, said Bogdanov, who is also Russian president’s special envoy for the Middle East and Africa.
“We have started to receive some positive signals on the calls we have made” for Gulen’s extradition, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara, saying further documents relating to the case for his deportation were being drawn up to send to Washington. Two military attachees, based in Greece, are thought to have recently fled elsewhere with their families, The Associated Press reported.
Turkey is pressing the U.S. to extradite the 75-year-old cleric and has purged tens of thousands of his suspected followers from the armed forces, other state institutions, the media and academia. Gulen strongly denies this. It was Erdogan’s first foreign trip since last month’s failed military coup, which left Turkey’s relationship with the United States and Europe badly damaged.
The United States and Russian Federation are responsible for overseeing a United Nations resolution from late 2013 to dismantle the Syrian government’s chemical weapons arsenal.
American officials have said they need to see clear evidence of Gulen’s involvement in the coup plot. “We will return these traitors to Turkey”, Cavusoglu said.
Later Thursday, the State Department said it remained in close contact with its Turkish allies to fight Daesh and would welcome it if Russian Federation were really interested in taking the fight to the militants.
“Everything is out in the open”. “In order to prevent that, we need to put into practice the solidarity and cooperation [mechanism] between us including sharing of real-time intelligence”.
Cavusoglu said Zarif was a foreign minister with whom he spoke to most frequently on the night of the coup, adding they may have talked “four or five times”. US officials are reportedly suspicious that statements by alleged coup-plotters blaming Gulen were made under duress and are concerned that the 75-year-old hermit would not receive a fair trial.
Erdogan says the armed forces have been infiltrated in recent years by Gulen’s supporters.
Although the two countries disagree about Syria, Russia supported Erdogan after members of Turkey’s military attempted to overthrow his government.
The tension between Russia and Turkey accelerated when Russia started an aggressive military campaign against ISIS and other opposition groups in Syria and has peaked when a Russian plane was shut down by a Turkish jet past year.
Isik said a decree would soon be ready to order the recruitment of new air force pilots following the purge.
More than 76,000 people with suspected links to Gulen have also been suspended or dismissed from their jobs in the judiciary, media, education, health care, military and local government, according to Interior Ministry figures.
Advertisement
“We sent 85 boxes of files”, he said, adding that he assumed the United States would not keep the cleric any longer, but “send him back”.
