The US-based cleric, who has been living in the United States since 1999, was named by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the orchestrator of Friday’s coup attempt in the country.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry said he had no evidence that Gulen was behind the plot and urged Turkish authorities to compile evidence as quickly as possible so the US could decide whether Gulen should be sent back to Turkey.
The White House said President Barack Obama discussed the extradition request during a phone call with Mr Erdogan, during which he pledged U.S. assistance in investigating the coup attempt.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said his Government had sent four files to the United States in a bid to secure the extradition of a man Ankara brands a “traitor”.
Fethullah Gulen, 75, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania but has a network of supporters within Turkey, has condemned the coup attempt and denied any role in it.
The sheer numbers being detained or dismissed were stunning: Nearly 18,000 in all, including 6,000 military, almost 9,000 police, as many as 3,000 judges, 30 governors and one-third of all generals and admirals, as well as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s own military attaché.
Meanwhile, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said it would be unacceptable for Turkey to reintroduce the death penalty in response to the failed coup.
The government also suspended 15,200 state education employees.
“A successful coup attempt would have been a tragedy for the country and the region”.
“Erdogan’s reaction to the coup has taken his country further down the wrong path”, he said.
A senior security official said 8,000 police officers, including in the capital Ankara and the biggest city Istanbul, had been removed from their posts on suspicion of links to Friday’s coup bid.
He led a group which included the president’s own top military adviser, the commander of the main air base used by U.S. troops to launch air strikes against Isis (Islamic State) in Syria, and the commander of the powerful Second Army.
“We will dig them up by their roots so that no clandestine terrorist organisation will have the nerve to betray our blessed people again”.
“The EU calls for the full observance of Turkey’s constitutional order and stresses the importance of the rule of law prevailing”, the ministers said.
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The possibility of reinstating the death penalty has raised concerns among Turkey’s western allies who said that this would certainly prevent Turkey from joining the European Union, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday.
