Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Washington to extradite a reclusive but influential Turkish imam in the US, who he accused of masterminding Friday’s failed coup attempt.
Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, is accused by Erdogan, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and top military officials of infiltrating Turkey’s armed forces and propagating Friday’s putsch, which left over 250 people died.
“Today, after this coup attempt, I’m once again calling on you, I’m saying: Extradite this man in Pennsylvania to Turkey now,” Mr. Erdogan said on Saturday in televised remarks from Istanbul in a personal appeal to President Barack Obama.
Gulen denied the accusations and said Saturday morning in an emailed statement through a spokeswoman that he denounced the overnight coup attempt.
The rebellious military factions plunged the nation into chaos with their push to seize power, and their actions now threaten to undermine ties between two longstanding NATO allies.
Government officials took up a hard-line view of Gulen as they moved to restore their power in Ankara. Turkey’s prime minister said the events of Friday night hardened the Turkish leadership’s views that Gulen needed to be arrested and punished.
“Any country that stands behind him is no friend of Turkey, is engaged in a serious war with Turkey,” Yildirim said from his office in Ankara.
Since Friday, some 3,000 alleged followers of the Gulen movement who participated in the failed putsch have been arrested, a senior Turkish official said. Meanwhile, Turkey’s top judicial board purged 2,745 judges and authorities detained two Constitutional Court judges, as well as some prosecutors, for alleged links to Gulen’s network, according to Turkish officials.
Both Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry signalled support for the elected government of Turkey, which is a member of NATO and a key ally in the conflict with Islamic State.