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Turkey accuses US of being behind coup.. demands extradition of Gulen ..access to air base housing US nukes blocked

Saturday, July 16, 2016 12:57

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(Before It's News)

Turkey Accuses US Of Being Behind Military Coup, Demands Extradition Of Cleric Gulen | Zero Hedge

….Turkish President Erdogan called on the United States to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric he accuses of being behind Turkey’s failed coup attempt.

…At roughtly the same time, Turkey’s Minister of Labor went one step further, and accused America of being behind the coup on live Television, as it was harboring Gulen.

…To be sure, as we wrote first thing this morning, Gulen, who is currently residing in Saylorsburg, Peynnsylvania, said he condemned the coup “in the strongest terms.”

Gulen, as those who have followed recent Turkish history know, is Erdogan’s quasi-imaginary bogeyman nemesis; Erdogan has repeatedly accused Gulen of plotting a “parallel state” whose intention is to overthrow Erdogan, and has used that strawman narrative as justification to expand his powers and to push for a shift from a parliamentary to a presidential regime. Gulen wrote in his blog that “As someone who suffered under multiple military coups during the past five decades, it is especially insulting to be accused of having any link to such an attempt. I categorically deny such accusations.”

…..None of this mattered to Erdogan who said as Turkey’s strategic partner, Washington should meet the demand for the extradition of Pennsylvania-based Fethullah Gulen. He also added that Turkey had never turned back any extradition request for “terrorists” by the United States, implying it is the US imperative to extradite the man Erdogan accuses of starting last night’s failed coup.

As Reuters adds, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said on Saturday he had made clear in a call with U.S. counterpart John Kerry that followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen were behind a coup attempt, and yet strangely enough, “had not directly discussed the cleric’s possible extradition.”

The revisionist narrative spun by the Turkish government, goes as follows: a faction of the armed forces, deemed by the government as loyal to Gulen, tried to seize power using tanks and attack helicopters overnight. As we learned previously, one hundred and sixty-one people were killed, including many civilians, in the ensuing violence. Allegedly up to 3,000 soldiers have been arrested, a paltry figure in comparison to the total size of the Turkish army, recently estimated at 315,000 personnel.

Cavusoglu said the military now needed to be “cleansed” of Gulenist influence. “Once this cleansing is finished our military will be stronger, our soldiers will be stronger, providing better support and coordination to NATO,” he said.

In an indirect hint that the Incirlik airbase may indeed be held hostage, the minister said soldiers at the base in southern Turkey, used by the U.S. military to conduct air strikes against the Islamic State, had been involved in the coup attempt and that arrests had been made.