Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç on Friday said there has yet to be progress from the U.S. in the return of FETÖ members to Türkiye in the past eight years since the terrorist group’s loyalists mounted a defeat coup d'etat against the Turkish state.
“FETÖ ringleader (Fetullah Gülen) remains a guest in the U.S. although we have made seven extradition requests on 27 different charges,” Tunç told Anadolu Agency (AA) ahead of the eighth anniversary of FETÖ’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt that killed 253 people and injured at least 2,100 others.
Turkish authorities have appealed to 115 other countries to extradite FETÖ-linked suspects since then, the minister said and added: “Unfortunately, the U.S., European nations, especially Germany, who claim to respect democracy and human rights, have overlooked our requests and continued protecting terrorists in their lands.”
Türkiye saw only 28 of its 181 requests for judicial assistance accepted so far, according to Tunç.
Accusing Türkiye’s allies of showing “double standards when it comes to FETÖ,” Tunç said: “It’s thought-provoking that world nations refuse to side with Türkiye in its struggle for democracy.”
Gülen has lived in a sprawling Pennsylvania estate since 1999 and used it as the headquarters of the terrorist group. Türkiye has submitted hundreds of folders full of evidence implicating Gülen and FETÖ in the coup attempt but U.S. officials have not approved it, saying what Türkiye submitted falls short of the standard required.
The refusal to extradite has long been a thorn in the side of Turkish-U.S. relations, with officials raising the issue in bilateral meetings to no avail.
FETÖ, known for its widespread infiltration into the Turkish army, law enforcement and other public institutions over the past decades, founded its global network in the form of schools and associations while disguising itself as an international nonprofit organization with religious undertones long before the coup attempt.
Türkiye often complains of failures in international cooperation against terrorism and the extradition issue stands out among those failures. The country, which fights against threats from multiple terrorist groups, says it expects the same stance from the international community, particularly its allies.
An unknown number of FETÖ members, mostly high-ranking figures, fled Türkiye when the coup attempt was thwarted. Many of the group's members had already left the country before the coup attempt after Turkish prosecutors launched investigations into other crimes of the terrorist group.
A senior FETÖ figure last month admitted for the first time that Gülen had known in advance of the July 15 coup attempt although he had been quick to deny any role in the coup attempt in the immediate aftermath.
