Turkish Dep. PM demands US ‘immediately’ arrest Gulen

By Ali Kemal Akan and Ilkay Guder

ANKARA (AA) – The U.S. needs to “immediately” arrest the head of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Monday.

Terror leader Fetullah Gulen, who martyred many and tried to overthrow democracy in Turkey last July, resides in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania as if nothing happened, Kurtulmus said at a news conference at the Presidential Palace while a Cabinet meeting was being held separately.

Gulen is granting interviews to major global media outlets and, in this way, is trying to motivate the organizational commitment of his supporters, Kurtulmus added.

He said Turkey and the U.S. have a long history of an alliance in NATO, but also strategic alliances in the Mideast and Turkish-American relations have an intense history.

"Alliance and friendship need to bring in and arrest that man immediately," Kurtulmus said. "It is unacceptable that a head of a bloody, murderer organization will continue his threats to Turkey from there.”

FETO and Gulen are accused of orchestrating the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, that lmartyred 250 souls and left nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

Kurtulmus said more than 100,000 public officials have been dismissed for links to FETO.

Of those, “32,180 were removed [temporarily]. If you think that there are 3.5 million public officials -- the number of the dismissed corresponds to 3.5 percent of total public officials”, Kurtulmus

A fundamental aspect of the fight against FETO is destroying the group’s financial resources that has large financial facilities, he said. "Therefore 966 companies linked to the organization (FETO) were confiscated.”

Kurtulmus also said more than 6 million people participated in events Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the defeated coup.