A reclusive Muslim cleric who lives in exile in Pennsylvania is now under an global spotlight after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly demanded Saturday that the USA extradite the imam for allegedly being behind an attempted coup that sought to remove Erdogan from power.
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Despite the support for Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government by the Obama administration during the coup, the country’s labor minister suggested Washington was behind the uprising.
The chaos capped a period of political turmoil in Turkey – a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member and key Western ally in the fight against the Islamic State group – that critics blame on Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian rule.
By Saturday afternoon, when tensions eased, an atmosphere of celebration broke around as Turks answered official calls to rally in the squares to protect Turkish democracy.
Elsewhere, a Blackhawk military helicopter transporting seven Turkish military personnel and one civilian landed in the Greek city of Alexandroupolis, where the passengers requested asylum, according to Greece’s defense ministry. Groups of government supporters climbed onto a tank near Ataturk airport. Some gathered outside parliament and amid the burnt cars outside the presidential palace.
“We are here for democracy, so the country lasts”, retired soldier Nusret Tuzak said at the Ankara gathering. Mostly national carriers were flying into Istanbul, but other airlines preferred to wait another day to test the precarious security situation.
Soldiers backed by tanks blocked entry to Istanbul’s airport for a couple of hours before being overtaken by pro-government crowds carrying Turkish flags, according to footage broadcast by the Dogan news agency.
Judicial authorities said 2,745 judges would also be sacked in the wake of the coup bid.
“While we have no indications as of yet that Americans were killed or injured in the violence, the president and his team lamented the loss of life and registered the vital need for all parties in Turkey to act within the rule of law and to avoid actions that would lead to further violence or instability”, the White House said in a statement. Hundreds of Gulen’s followers in the army, police and judiciary were arrested and jailed past year.
President Barack Obama urged parties on all sides of the crisis in Turkey on Saturday to avoid destabilizing behavior and follow the rule of law, a day after a coup attempt against President Tayyip Erdogan rocked USA efforts to combat Islamic State.
From his compound in the town of Saylorsburg in the Poconos, the cleric promotes a philosophy that blends a mystical form of Islam with advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue.
In a televised speech on Saturday, Mr Erdogan called on the United States to extradite Mr Gulen and an official said Turkey was preparing a formal extradition application. Washington, meanwhile, has never found any evidence previously submitted by Ankara particularly compelling.
In a televised speech on Saturday night, he called on the United States to extradite Gulen.
“Their main gripe seems to have been President Erdogan’s attempt to transform his office into a powerful and centralized executive presidency”, Hakura said. You didn’t listen. I call on you again, after there was a coup attempt.
“In the short term, this failed coup plot will strengthen President Erdogan”.
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Turkey’s military staged three coups between 1960 and 1980 and pressured Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, a pious Muslim mentor of Erdogan, out of power in 1997.
