Turkey has apparently misinterpreted a conversation with Donald Trump: The White House denies that US President Donald Trump has pledged the extradition of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen to Turkey. At his meeting with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the G20 summit two and a half weeks ago in Buenos Aires, Trump "did not commit" to extraditing Gülen, a senior White House official said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday that Trump had told Erdogan that his government had "worked" on the Gülen case. This had been understood by Turkish media as saying that the US president had promised the extradition of the preacher. The Turkish government then demanded concrete steps by the US to extradite the preacher Fethullah Gülen and other members of his movement.
DPA
Fethullah Gulen
Gülen has been living in exile in the USA since 1999. Previous Turkish demands for his extradition had no success. Erdogan refers to Gülen, who was allied with him earlier, as mastermind of the failed attempted coup against him in July 2016. Gülen rejects this charge vehemently.
US President Trump said a month ago that extradition of Gülen "is not up for discussion". At the same time he had said that they always try to accommodate Turkey. Erdogan he had called a "friend".
Because of the failed military coup in July 2016, nearly 2,000 people have been sentenced to life imprisonment in Turkey. As the official news agency Anadolu reported, 987 people received life imprisonment and 956 life sentences. This punishment replaces the death penalty in Turkey and means tougher conditions of detention.