Turkey seeks arrest of US-based cleric
An Istanbul-based court issued the warrant for “ordering the July 15 coup attempt”, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
The government says Gulen, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, masterminded the failed coup by renegade officers in Turkey’s military and wants him extradited to Turkey.
Gulen has denied involvement or prior knowledge of the coup attempt.
Ankara has not yet made a formal extradition request, but the arrest warrant could be the prelude.
Washington has asked for evidence of the cleric’s involvement and has said the extradition process must be allowed to take its course.
Turkey has designated Gulen’s movement, which runs charities, schools, and businesses across the world, as a terrorist organisation and has launched a widespread crackdown on suspected members since the failed coup.
Since the coup attempt, nearly 70,000 people have been suspended or dismissed from jobs in the civil service, judiciary, education, healthcare, the military, and the media.
About 18,000 people have been detained or arrested, mostly from the military, on suspicion of being involved in the failed coup.
Earlier, Erdogan vowed to go after businesses linked to Gulen’s movement.
“Without doubt, this organisation has an extension in the business world. Maybe it is what they are most powerful at,” he said during a speech to the heads of chambers of commerce in Ankara.
“We are determined to totally cut off all business links of this organisation, which has blood on its hands.”
Erdogan said every penny that goes to the Gulen movement “is a bullet placed in a barrel to be fired against this nation. In the same way that we do not pardon those who fire the bullet, we will not forgive those who financed the bullet.”
Erdogan added that the purge of the military would continue.
