Turks asked to dob in supporters
A crackdown on followers of a cleric blamed for last weekend’s failed coup goes worldwide.
Turkey is asking its nationals living abroad to report people and organisations that support a United States-based Muslim cleric who is accused of masterminding a failed military coup to Turkish authorities, Swedish Radio reported yesterday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based cleric and former ally, of being behind the plot, which crumbled last weekend.
In a crackdown on Gulen’s suspected followers, more than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and educators have been suspended, detained or placed under investigation.
Gulen has condemned attempted coup and denied involvement in it.
On a Facebook page that caters to supporters of Turkey’s ruling AK Party, a post urges people to call a Turkish phone number and provide information about supporters of Gulen.
After calling the number, public broadcaster Swedish Radio reported that it had reached the president’s office, which confirmed it was interested in information about Gulen supporters in Sweden. It said it wanted ‘‘all information you could give, personal data and addresses’’.
Turkey’s ambassador to Sweden, Kaya Turkmen, had not been aware of the post, Swedish Radio said, but he said he found it natural that the Turkish state would be interested in such information.
‘‘Every state has a right to collect information on activities that are directed against it, even if it is individuals living in Sweden,’’ Turkmen told Swedish Radio, which added that there had been similar posts on social media in Germany and Austria. the any
US President Barack Obama yesterday denied any US role in Turkey’s failed coup and insisted that an extradition request for Gulen would have to go through normal channels.
Obama said he told Erdogan in a phone call earlier this week that the US had no prior knowledge of the abortive coup.
‘‘Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any US involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy, are completely false, unequivocally false,’’ Obama said.
‘‘[Erdogan] needs to make sure that not just he, but everybody in his government, understands that those reports are completely false. ‘‘Every state has a right to collect information on activities that are directed against it.’’ Because when rumours like that start swirling around, that puts our people at risk on the ground in Turkey, and it threatens what is a critical alliance and partnership between the United States and Turkey.’’
Reports of US involvement in the coup attempt, which were also denied earlier this week by the US ambassador to Turkey, appear to be partly fuelled by the fact that Gulen lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains.
Obama said he told Erdogan his government must present evidence of Gulen’s alleged complicity in the failed coup. An extradition request would then receive the review required by the Justice Department and other government agencies.
Serdar Kilic, the Turkish ambassador to the US, said yesterday his country had submitted the ‘‘necessary documentation’’ for Gulen’s extradition. Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said he could not yet give a ‘‘hard yes or no’’ on whether the materials constituted a formal extradition request.