Turkish prosecutors have formally requested the U.S. government for the temporary arrest of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, over his alleged involvement in the attempted coup on July 15, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
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Turkey nearly immediately increased pressure for the extradition from the United States of Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan who runs an influential network of worldwide schools outside Turkey.
On Saturday, Ankara sent a letter to United States authorities asking for the detention of Gulen.
On Friday, Turkey’s foreign and justice ministers announced that a four-person delegation from the US Justice Department will be arriving on August 22 and meet with their Turkish counterparts on the following two days to discuss the extradition request.
The White House said Saturday that U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden will visit Turkey on August 24, the first visit by a high-ranking U.S. official since the failed coup.
In a letter that the Turkish Attorney General sent to U.S. authorities, Turkey demanded that exiled cleric Fettullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for planning the coup attempt, be handed over to them.
Gulen said on Friday he would only hand himself over to Turkish authorities if an independent global investigative body first found him guilty.
Yildirim said he believed there would be a “positive outcome” with the United States on the extradition, Anadolu said.
Ankara claims Gulen movement is responsible for the failed putsch which has left more than 270 people dead and has branded it a terrorist organization.
Yildirim said more than 76,000 officials had been suspended and almost 5,000 dismissed following the coup, including 3,000 soldiers as well as judges and civil servants.
There is concern among Turkey’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies as well as the European Union, which it aspires to join, that Erdogan – in power the prime minister or president since 2002 – might be using the purge to eliminate dissent.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves to the crowd during a massive rally in Istanbul last weekend.
That response has infuriated Ankara, which accuses the West of showing more concern about the purges than the coup itself.
Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic, in a statement, said Zeid’s comments were unacceptable.
Still, the scope of the security sweep now appears to be worrying even some in the ruling, Islamist-rooted AK Party.
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In the past, he has been accused of being the leader of an organisation that illegally tapped into the conversations of Erdogan and Ahmet Davutoglu, the former prime minister.
