The warrant accuses Fethullah Gulen of “ordering the 15 July coup attempt”.
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Kazakhstan will expel any Turkish teacher linked to an Islamic cleric Ankara accuses of engineering an abortive coup, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said after meeting his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan.
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.
The latest move effectively permits Erdogan, who has not altogether convincingly preached the mantra of democracy, to take control of Turkish football – a strong political tool in the country – despite strict FIFA rules that outlaws government interference.
A Turkish court issued an arrest warrant Thursday for Gulen, an influential Muslim cleric who has lived in the United States since 1999 and is the leader of a vast network of organizations, schools and followers in Turkey and around the world.
If confirmed, the visits would take place despite a spike in tensions with Washington, with Ankara repeatedly demanding Gulen’s extradition since the July 15 coup bid.
Men walk at the Galata bridge past two Turkey flags, in Istanbul, on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016. America has not yet agreed to extradite him, however, requesting more evidence of his ties to the coup. In addition to cultural differences, in making his case and in urging the United States to act, Erdogan points to examples where Turkey complied without delay to Western requests for extradition.
Gülen, who has lived in the U.S. since 1999, strongly denies any involvement and the movement he leads insists it is a charitable network promoting tolerant Islam.
Earlier on Thursday, Erdogan vowed to go after businesses linked to Gulen’s movement.
Robert Amsterdam, an global lawyer hired by the Turkish government to investigate Gulen’s activities outside Turkey, said he was not involved in the extradition case but took issue with Weingarten’s statement that Gulen could not be extradited. “Maybe it is what they are most powerful at”, he said in remarks to the heads of chambers of commerce in Ankara, according to multiple reports.
The president said that every cent that goes to the Gulen movement “is a bullet placed in a barrel to be fired against this nation”.
“Let my God and my people forgive us”, he said.
Eker said the cleric’s movement had hundreds of schools, charities or other establishments in more than 100 countries and warned they too could face “security risks” from the group in the future.
The purge has set alarm bells ringing in the West, which has voiced growing concern over the scope of the operation, drawing a fierce response from Erdogan.
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He said “there is no realistic perspective for membership” for Turkey. Austrian chancellor Christian Kern on 3 August called for the European Union to end accession talks with Turkey because of the country’s “democratic and economic deficits”.
