Turkish Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gül said on Sunday that despite Turkey’s requests for the extradition of Gülen movement members on accusations of terrorism, no country has recognized the movement as a terrorist organization.
“No country has agreed that FETÖ [a term coined by Turkey’s regime to call the Gülen movement terrorists] is a terrorist organization or accepted our extradition requests,” Gül told the Hürriyet daily.
Turkey accuses the faith-based movement’s leader, Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, of orchestrating a July 15, 2016 coup attempt and of establishing a “parallel structure” within the state. Gülen and the movement deny any involvement.
“The US, the UK, Germany — none of them have extradited anyone we requested,” Gül said, adding that he has been demanding extraditions from his counterparts.
Turkey has been pursuing a massive purge of real and perceived supporters of the movement. Tens of thousands of people are in pretrial detention, and more than 150,000 have been dismissed from government positions.
The regime in Turkey also conducts abduction operations against movement supporters abroad whenever possible as part of the systematic witch-hunt.