Turkey says ready to give all documents to US probe team on Gulen

Turkey's justice minister says Ankara is ready to give all the necessary documents to an American judiciary delegation currently in the country for its ongoing investigation into the activities of the outlawed Fethullah Gulen movement, which is branded by the Turkish government as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

The delegation, comprising judiciary and law enforcement officials, arrived in Turkey on January 3 as part of the probe.

An opposition cleric based in Philadelphia, Fethullah Gulen is accused by the Turkish government of having masterminded the July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Speaking to reports on Saturday, Abdulhamit Gul, the Turkish justice minister, said US officials in Ankara had requested to see some digital data on FETO's link to the deadly coup attempt, adding that Turkey had provided them with necessary evidence in this regard.

“Through evidence we presented to the US, we have seen that they were on-point demands. We will try to give all documents and information," the Turkish minister said.

Gul said the visit by the US judicial authorities was “important.” He added that the result of the investigation might affect the current extradition proceedings of Gulen.

"So, I think after what the US delegation witnessed, the US investigation [into FETO] will give way to different developments," Gul said.

The minister said that “political approaches are also effective in extradition issues. But our approach is judicial."

Gul also said the number of convicts and arrested suspects in trials and investigations directed at the FETO movement is currently at 31,088, adding that 241 out of 289 lawsuits had been concluded.

The Turkish minister said Ankara had requested the extradition of 432 suspects from 83 countries, adding that some 97 suspects had been extradited to Turkey from 22 countries.

During the 2016 coup attempt, a faction of the Turkish military declared that it had seized control of the country and the government of Erdogan was no more in charge. The attempt was, however, suppressed a few hours later.

Gulen is also accused of being behind a long-running campaign to topple the government via infiltrating the country’s institutions, particularly the army, police and judiciary.

The US-based cleric has denounced the “despicable putsch” and reiterated that he had no role in it.

The dissident cleric, now 77, has also called on Ankara to end its “witch hunt” of his followers, a move he says is aimed at “weeding out anyone it deems disloyal to President Erdogan and his regime.”

Ankara has long been pressing on its NATO ally for the extradition of Gulen and has already sent multiple extradition requests to Washington, but their demands have not been taken heed of.

PressTV-‘Turkey has sent US 7 extradition demands for Gulen’

The Turkish justice minister says Ankara has sent seven extradition requests to the US over extradition of opposition cleric Fetullah Gulen.

In November, NBC News reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump was looking for ways to extradite Gulen, as part of efforts to placate Turkey and ease its pressure on Saudi Arabia over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was gruesomely murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in early October.

However, Trump denied the report and stressed that he was not considering extraditing the preacher.

The premeditated murder of Khashoggi has escalated tensions in Ankara-Riyadh relations, with President Erdogan accusing the highest-ranking Saudi officials of ordering the assassination.

Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in Turkey on suspicion of having links to Gulen and the failed coup. More than 110,000 others, including military staff, civil servants and journalists, have been sacked or suspended from work over the same accusations.

The international community and rights groups have been highly critical of the Turkish president over the massive dismissals and the crackdown.

Read more:

• Trump working on extraditing Gulen: Turkey
• Turkey urges US to extradite Gulen, 83 others
• US mulls extraditing Gulen to appease Turkey: Report

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