Turkey urges U.S. to stop stalling on extradition of coup mastermind

Extradition

Istanbul, July 19, 2018 (dpa/NAN) Turkey on Thursday urged the U.S. must stop stalling on the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, the cleric whom Ankara blames for an attempted coup two years ago.

“Washington and Ankara recently discussed not only the return of Gulen, who lives in exile in Pennsylvania, but also U.S. citizens arrested in Turkey.

“We have stressed … that America should no longer stall us, particularly on the issue of FETO,” Aksoy told reporters, using an acronym for Gulen’s movement,’’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said on Thursday.

Among the U.S. citizens being held in Turkey is Christian pastor Andrew Brunson, who was arrested in 2016 in the aftermath of the failed coup and is accused of ties to Gulen’s movement and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

A Turkish court ruled on Wednesday that Brunson would remain in prison on charges of terrorism and espionage.

U.S. President Donald Trump called his continued detention a “total disgrace,” and said the pastor “has been held hostage far too long.”

Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met recently on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels, when Aksoy said the issue of Gulen was raised.

Erdogan suggested in 2017 that Brunson’s case could be connected to an extradition request for Gulen.

The U.S. says Turkey has not presented sufficient evidence against the Islamic cleric.

The state of emergency in Turkey, imposed after the 2016 coup attempt that killed more than 200 people and left 2,000 injured, ended early Thursday. (dpa/NAN)

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