Turkey Concedes: No Evidence Linking Gulen to Coup Sent to Washington


Date posted: August 25, 2016

JOHN HUDSON

Turkey is conceding it has not sent any evidence to Washington linking Fethullah Gulen to the failed July 15 coup attempt, despite increasingly angry calls by Ankara for the United States to extradite the Pennsylvania-based cleric or suffer a severe downgrade in diplomatic relations.

In a statement to Foreign Policy, Turkish Embassy spokesman Naci Aydan Karamanoğlu said evidence linking Gulen to the coup “will be submitted in due time.”

He added that “it would be impossible to send so much evidence on the coup attempt just days after it happened.”

But top Turkish officials have not been similarly patient when demanding the immediate deportation of Gulen, whom they call a “terrorist.”

Ahead of Joe Biden’s visit to Turkey on Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to tell the vice president that the U.S. does not “have the right to hem and haw. You have to hand him over.”

He previously warned the White House that it had to “choose between Turkey and Gulen.” Turkey, an important partner in the fight against the Islamic State, owns an airbase the U.S. uses to stage airstrikes in Syria.

Turkish demands for Gulen’s extradition have also given way to a wave of anti-American charges and criticism in the Turkish press, including unsubstantiated allegations that U.S. officials attempted to assassinate Erdogan or that the military putsch was planned by the Wilson Center, a U.S.-based think tank.

Gulen, an influential preacher and a onetime political ally of Erdogan and his AKP party, currently lives in a secluded compound in the Pocono Mountains. He and his lawyers deny any involvement in the coup.

During his visit, Biden said that it is “totally understandable why the people of Turkey are angry,” but noted that America’s system of government has separate and independent roles for the executive and judicial branches and the president could not simply order the extradition of Gulen unilaterally.

Turkey’s admission that it hasn’t sent evidence about Gulen’s activities related to the coup may have been prompted by an op-ed written by Biden in Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper on Wednesday. In it, Biden said the U.S. would deport Gulen if Turkey can prove that he masterminded the coup but added that the U.S. has yet to receive “any evidence from Turkey relating to the attempted coup.”

“It seems like a calibration in response to Vice President Biden,” said Steven Cook, a Turkey expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. “For over a month they have been insisting that Fethullah Gulen was responsible for the coup and that they had evidence of his guilt.”

Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert at the Wilson Center, said Turkey may have decided to jump the gun in demanding Gulen’s extradition in order to corner the U.S. in the “Turkish public eye.”

In an email exchange, Karamanoğlu, the embassy spokesman, said that the U.S. has received an extradition request from Turkey based on Gulen’s activities “before the July 15th failed coup attempt.”

“Fethullah Gulen was already under investigation for establishing a terrorist organization and illegal activities against the state among other charges before the coup attempt occurred,” Karamanoğlu said.

U.S. officials have never indicated that Gulen might be extradited for actions he carried out before the coup.

Aaron Stein, a Turkey expert at the Atlantic Council, said the idea that Gulen has been working to undermine the government “has been around in Turkey since the 1980s.” A warrant was issued for Gulen’s arrest in August 2000 as prosecutors claimed he had infiltrated key government institutions in order to remake the Turkish state. In 2006, a Turkish court cleared him of wrongdoing before he received a green card in 2008.

“The accusations aren’t new,” said Stein. “I think what many people should be asking is, if he was such a threat, why was he such a close AKP ally for years.”

Source: Foreign Policy , August 25, 2016


Related News

Turkey’s crackdown threatens German stability, Gulen followers fear

As storekeeper Cem Celik closes his small supermarket in one of Berlin’s traditional Turkish neighbourhoods for the night, he is bracing himself for what lies ahead.

PACE concerned over lack of domestic remedy for purge victims in Turkey

Two rapporteurs for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Wednesday expressed concern at the apparent lack of an effective domestic remedy for persons who have been dismissed from their jobs, arrested or detained by the Turkish authorities.

Fethullah Gülen’s Message for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Throughout his life, Dr. King spoke out against oppression, and he expressed discontent with people who remained silent. Indifference has led to the demise of many communities throughout history. Every believer’s attitude should be: No matter where injustice and oppression occurs, it concerns me and I have a responsibility to do something about it.

Success stories of Kenya’s Light Academies’ beaming alumni

The Turkish schools were recently steeped in controversy after the Turkish government linked to being part of activities of self-exiled clergy Fethullah Gulen whose global network is accused by the Ankara government for fomenting terrorism, and money laundering.

The Hizmet movement, social democracy, the religious left

The organizers announced that the conference would on the first day focus on “the Hizmet movement, inspired by the Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen, which is portrayed by many as an example of modern, ‘enlightened’ Islam, oriented towards dialogue and co-operation rather than conflict.

Erdogan’s war on education: The exodus of Turkey’s teachers

They were happy when Greek police caught them. “They treated us very well,” Hakan says. “Zehra told us she felt safer spending [several nights] in jail than [she did] in Turkey. She said: ‘The Greek police are keeping us safe from the Turks.'”

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

EU stresses right to freedom of expression in wake of media investigations [in Turkey]

The Hizmet (Gulen) movement and transparency

Al-Jazeera: Turkish probe marks AKP-Gulen power struggle

U.S. Not Persuaded to Extradite Fethullah Gulen Over Turkey Coup

Gulen Movement’s Global Appeal: Reflections from Chicago

NPR interviews Stephen Kinzer on graft probe and Fethullah Gulen

Kimse Yok Mu to send aid for Syrian refugees with 50 TIRs

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News