Turkish police yesterday raided three major courts in Istanbul in search of more than 170 suspects wanted over last month’s attempted coup, reports said.
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Ankara has accused US-based dissident Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers (FETO) of playing a key role in the coup.
Gulen has repeatedly denied the government’s accusation and has denounced the arrest warrant as “yet another example of President Erdogan’s drive for authoritarianism”.
Police were searching offices at the main courthouse in Istanbul’s Caglayan district as well as at two other courthouses on the European side of the city, Anadolu said.
Yildirim said more than 81,000 government employees have either been suspended or fired from their jobs for allegedly being party to the coup attempt, though he acknowledged the government was having difficulty determining which individuals actively supported it from those who were caught up in it by chance.
Think others should know about this? Turkish officials say they are confronting an internal threat. Turkey has since requested Gulen’s extradition from the U.S.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford was the first senior US official to visit Turkey on August 1 following the coup attempt.
Gulen said on Friday he would only hand himself over to Turkish authorities if an independent worldwide investigative body first found him guilty.
“In recent weeks, runaway coup plotters have been trying to leave Turkey via routes traditionally used by the PKK to smuggle militants and weapons in and out of the country”, he said.
“In recent weeks, runaway operatives that successfully reached Iraq have been accompanied by PKK elements on the ground”, the officer said.
Washington has said it would need evidence of the cleric’s involvement, and says the regular extradition process must be allowed to take its course. They were flown to Istanbul for questioning.
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“The American vice president is expected.to come to Turkey, on August 24 with the American delegation”, Binali Yildirim told a group of journalists, according to the website of TV channel CNN Turk. Several military attaches are also on the run after refusing to return home.
