Similarly, Sweden said Wednesday it won’t send back failed asylum-seekers from Turkey who are Gulen supporters and who have “reliable connections” to the attempted coup.
Advertisement
After Monday’s meeting with Dunford, the Turkish PM’s office said in a statement that the top American general had condemned the coup and his visit to the country was aimed to support democracy in Turkey.
Turkey has repeatedly accused US-based preacher Fetullah Gulen of organizing the coup and has said those involved in the coup attempt are members of the banned Fetullah Terrorist Organization or FETO.
Turkey had initially sent four dossiers to Washington on July 19 demanding Gulen’s extradition.
The government has conducted a sweeping crackdown on those suspected of supporting Gulen’s movement, which runs schools, charities and businesses across the world, vowing to root out the movement’s followers.
Additionally, while USA courts won’t assess concerns about the fair treatment of suspects in a country requesting extradition, the issue could still arise because extradition is “ultimately a political decision” by the United States, he said. Tens of thousands of people in Turkey have been dismissed or suspended from their jobs in the civil service, education, health care, judiciary, the military and media sectors, while about 18,000 have been detained or arrested, mostly in the military.
The Turkish government, and Erdogan in particular, has been angered by what they say is a delay in the extradition of Gulen from the USA, and the issue has strained relations between the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies.
Erdogan also pledged to strengthen Turkey’s intelligence agencies and flush out the influence of Gulen, whose grip on the security apparatus he blamed for the lack of intelligence in the run-up to the coup. In the days after the coup, Turkish authorities cut power to Incirlik, a key US installation in the fight against the Islamic State, and proceeded to close the airspace over the base as Turkish officials rushed to account for any of their aircraft used in the coup.
Part of the crackdown against Gulen’s network has focused on reforming the military, bringing it increasingly under civilian command. About 18,000 people have been detained or arrested, majority from the military, and authorities have said the purge will continue.
The attempted coup left 271 people dead in a night of violence when renegade sections of the military used tanks, fighter jets and helicopters to try to overthrow the government.
“These arrangements won’t weaken the Turkish Armed Forces, on the contrary they will strengthen them and prepare them to face all kinds of threats”, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in an address to his ruling party legislators. “The armed forces will focus their energies on their fundamental duty”.
The nationalist opposition, which like the CHP has so far largely backed the government’s response to the coup and has vowed to support any move to reintroduce the death penalty for plotters, also criticised the military overhaul.
Advertisement
Barely a day after the Pentagon’s top official arrived in Turkey in a bid to cool growing tensions between Ankara and Washington, a Turkish lawyer filed a criminal complaint against him and two other senior US officials. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them.
