ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkey wants the United States to speed up procedures for extraditing US -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it accuses of orchestrating last month’s violent coup attempt, the country’s prime minister said Saturday.
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Meanwhile, detention orders were issued for 62 academics working at Istanbul University as part of the same investigation.
So far, almost 80,000 civil servants have been suspended from duty while just over 5,000 have been dismissed, Yildirim added.
Binali Yildirim was speaking with foreign media representatives in Istanbul days before a delegation of U.S. Justice Department and State Department officials are due to arrive in Turkey to discuss Turkey’s demand that Gulen be returned to Turkey to face trial for the brutal July 15 coup. In purges of the military, police, civil service and judiciary, 79,900 people had been removed from public duty, he said in a speech broadcast live on television.
Gulen, a former Erdogan ally, has a powerful network of influence in institutions such as the judiciary and police and has always been accused of running a “parallel state” in Turkey.
Prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 187 suspects including the CEOs of leading companies.
Police launched a vast operation in the country’s economic capital Istanbul and other provinces into the alleged Gulen-linked companies – the biggest crackdown on business since the July 15 failed putsch, the Anadolu news agency reported.
Among the businesses targeted were two Fortune 500 companies, CNN Turk said, naming clothing makers Aydinli Group and Eroglu Holding, which both run large retail chains.
Gulen, formerly close to Erdogan and living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, has denounced the attempted coup, when rogue troops commandeered tanks and jets to attack government installations.
Police found books written by Gulen during a search of the CEO’s offices, media reports said.
“My son-in-law will receive the punishment he deserves if he had acted contrary to his testimonies”, he wrote. Prosecutors were already seeking its president, Rizanur Meral.
It said the suspects are charged with “financing the terror organization”, “being member of the terror organization” and “forming and running a terror organization”.
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Erdogan has vowed to cleanse the state from the “cancer” of Gulen’s influence.
