Turkish ambassador leads an unrealistic mission: bringing a reclusive Muslim cleric before Turkish courts

Turkish Islamic Scholar Fethullah Gülen. (Photo: Cihan)
Turkish Islamic Scholar Fethullah Gülen. (Photo: Cihan)


Date posted: October 15, 2016

Tracy Wilkinson

Serdar Kilic has one of the hardest jobs in Washington. Lobbying members of Congress, making speeches, handing out flash drives of supposed evidence, Turkey’s ambassador here is leading what appears to be a quixotic mission: bringing a reclusive Muslim cleric, holed up in rural Pennsylvania, before Turkish courts.

Turkey’s government has asked the Obama administration to extradite Fethullah Gulen, insisting he masterminded the July 15 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that left more than 250 people dead.


Erdogan’s government considers Gulen a terrorist and his movement a terrorist organization. The U.S. government does not.


The wide-ranging conspiratorial plot that Turkish officials accuse Gulen of directing is breathtaking. It’s also a tough sell.

“It’s like trying to explain a surrealistic Fellini movie,” Kilic said in an interview. “This is something very difficult for American people to understand.”

Turkey is a key NATO ally, is host to a major U.S. Air Force base and plays a critical role in the battle against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Washington is keenly interested in what happens there.

Erdogan’s government considers Gulen a terrorist and his movement a terrorist organization. The U.S. government does not.

And the extradition case is deepening tensions between Ankara and Washington.

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag has told reporters in Ankara that investigators have confiscated half-a-million digital documents, including computer and smartphone records. The material, he said “will leave no doubt” about Gulen’s guilt.

Gulen, now 75, has lived the last 17 years in self-imposed exile at the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, and rarely goes out. He leads what he describes as a peaceful religious, educational and cultural organization.

He has acknowledged that some of his followers may have participated in the attempted government overthrow, but he said they were not acting on his orders and that he played no role.


Although Turkey immediately blamed Gulen for the coup attempt, it took Ankara nearly six weeks to make a formal request for his extradition — and that was based on earlier alleged crimes, not for his supposed role in the coup.


“Nothing good will come out of coups,” Gulen told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on July 31. “Coups will divide, separate, disintegrate and make people the enemy of each other. This animosity will also affect future generations, just like it is in Turkey now.”

To hear Turkish authorities tell it, Turks loyal to Gulen, and trained in what critics portray as a cult-like empire of schools and mosques, have steadily, over years, infiltrated Turkish institutions and moved into positions of power.

Gulen’s followers penetrated, this version contends, the top echelons of Turkey’s military; many levels of the judiciary, intelligence services and police; financial institutions; schools across the board; newspapers and other media.

They created, the Turkish government alleges, a “parallel state” determined to undermine the Erdogan administration.

Armed with that vision, Erdogan’s government has arrested or fired more than 90,000 military officers, teachers, lawyers, journalists and others because of suspicions they supported Gulen and the failed putsch.

Mehmet Mehdi Eker, a politician from Erdogan’s party and a former Cabinet minister, was in the Turkish parliament building the night mutinous troops shelled and burned it. He played the ally card when he visited Washington last month to lobby lawmakers and others.

“Turkey and the United States are allies and friends, and in difficult times in history we would like that our friends be well-informed and realize what is happening,” Eker said in an interview at Ambassador Kilic’s residence.

Gulen’s extradition to Turkey was “our expectation” given the “rule of friendship” between the two countries, Eker argued.

Although Turkey immediately blamed Gulen for the coup attempt, it took Ankara nearly six weeks to make a formal request for his extradition — and that was based on earlier alleged crimes, not for his supposed role in the coup.

The Obama administration, which quickly condemned the coup, is formally considering the extradition request. But no decision appears imminent.

Some officials worry Gulen would not get a fair trial in Turkey, and are wary of Turkey’s claims that he is a terrorist rather than a political opponent. Many find the alleged vast conspiracy to be far-fetched.

If the Gulenist infiltration was as deep and destabilizing as the Turkish government claims, then why did no one outside Turkey notice the threat?

“That everybody missed this, that it was so Machiavellian, so stealthy, so sneaky … that would be an astonishing feat if true,” said John Hannah, an expert on Turkey who has worked in both Democratic and Republican administrations.

“It is hard to believe it is true,” said Hannah, now a senior counselor at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan think tank.

“I am willing to believe it, but I want to see actual evidence,” said Eric Edelman, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and a former defense and national security official. “The bar has to be high.”

Turkey hired attorneys to build a case against Gulen even before the abortive coup.

Robert Amsterdam, an American lawyer based in London, has investigated Gulen’s work for more than a year. Any evidence he finds would not necessarily be part of an extradition case, but it could support Turkey’s portrayal of Gulen as a crook.


If the Gulenist infiltration was as deep and destabilizing as the Turkish government claims, then why did no one outside Turkey notice the threat? “That everybody missed this, that it was so Machiavellian, so stealthy, so sneaky … that would be an astonishing feat if true,” said John Hannah, an expert on Turkey who has worked in both Democratic and Republican administrations.


Amsterdam cites the network of charter schools that Gulen’s organization purportedly establishes and finances across the United States and in other countries.

The Los Angeles Times reported this week that L.A. Unified School District authorities are considering whether to close three Los Angeles charter schools, operated by locally based Magnolia Public Schools, because they brought in teachers from Turkey. The chain has denied direct ties to Gulen.

Until recently, it was hard for Amsterdam to meet U.S. lawmakers or law enforcement to discuss Gulen. He gets more of a hearing now, but says he still struggles to make his case, insisting that Gulen’s role is both clandestine and extensive.

Times staff writer Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this report.

Source: Stars & Stripes , October 14, 2016


Related News

Erdoğan steps up campaign against Gülen-inspired schools abroad

In a clear sign of his intensified campaign and escalating political vendetta against the movement, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on Turkish diplomats on Tuesday to lobby in foreign capitals for the takeover of Gülen-inspired Turkish schools by a Turkish government-run foundation.

Never without justice

There have been many moves of interference with an investigation where four ministers and their kids are being accused and concrete evidence and documents present a grave situation. In these first days of the investigation, the police chiefs and authorities were removed, new prosecutors were appointed, police authorities were reappointed all over Turkey, everybody covering the issue including the media is being strongly suppressed, innocent people are being insulted and accused of forming a gang. All of this is being done to cover up the corruption.

Fate of Pak-Turk Schools: Erdogan, Jamaat-e-Islami-backed Maa’rif Foundation?

At the heart of the matter is the question of Maa’rif’s credentials to take over the schools instead of its Pakistani management. Turkey is least known for its standard of education. Moreover, the Erdogan-backed organisation is neither experienced in the education field nor apolitical. The organisation is already scared with allegation of child sexually abuse in Turkey.

Peace Valley Foundation recognizes reporter, teacher, preacher for community work

At about the same time tonight, April 18, 2013, that a keeper of the peace at Massachusetts Institute of Technology was fatally wounded by gunshots; in the same week that some vicious destructors left bags of explosive shrapnel aimed at runners, family and children at the finish line of the Boston Marathon; in the same […]

Neither Erdoğan nor EU the same after five years

Erdoğan is going to Brussels as the prime minister of Turkey who doesn’t even have ambassadors in three of its region’s important capital; Cairo, Tel Aviv and Damascus. A negotiation chapter was opened in November 2013 after a three-year freeze. Erdoğan had to sack the former EU minister from the cabinet because of the allegations in relation with a major graft probe in December 2013 and appointed Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to that post.

Witch hunt spreads to courthouse

Erdoğan’s government is continuing to harass his opponents, especially people and companies affiliated with the Hizmet movement, inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, for their critical stance against the corruption that has implicated senior government officials.

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

Fatih University wins European Universities Championship

Former minister inquires about secret plot against Gülen movement

Pak-Turk schools: Parents urge government against transferring administration to Erdogan-linked organization

Top judge, paralysed after cancer surgery, under arrest at hospital

Dutch government calls on Turkish community to report threats by supporters of Turkish President Erdogan

An NBA Center Faces Imprisonment And Possible Execution In Turkey

Turkey’s Maarif Foundation illegally seized German-run school in Ethiopia, says manager

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News