Fethullah Gulen

[Magda Hassan]

I expect the State Department will file it in the waste paper basket. Can't have their boy facing criminal charges. That may lead to others being charged for crimes too. Wonder what Erdogan wants from the US?

Ankara (AFP) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said he will seek to extradite an exiled cleric he accuses of orchestrating a "parallel state" and attempts to bring down the government from his base in the United States.



Erdogan told NTV that a legal procedure "will begin" for the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, a former ally who he says has masterminded a massive corruption scandal through his powerful network of supporters in the police and judiciary.
The prime minister's comments came a day after he told US broadcaster PBS that he wants President Barack Obama to deport Gulen and send him back to Turkey.
Erdogan said he hoped Washington would deliver on the issue as a "model partner".
"At least they should deport him," he said.
Gulen was once a close ally of the prime minister, helping him to challenge the traditional stranglehold of the military and to install Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) in power in 2002.
Gulen was forced to flee the country in 1999 after he was accused of plotting against the secular government of the time.
[URL="https://news.yahoo.com/photos/woman-waves-flag-founder-turkish-republic-kamal-ataturk-photo-145230857.html"] View gallery

[/URL] A woman waves a flag of the founder of the Turkish republic Kamal Ataturk as Turks residing in the U …

But their alliance has faltered in recent years, and was decisively shattered in December when police raids saw dozens of the Erdogan's key business and political allies detained on bribery allegations.
The premier has repeatedly accused Gulenists of engineering the investigation as well as a string of damaging leaks in the media. He retaliated by sacking thousands of police and prosecutors.
Gulen has denied any involvement in the corruption probe.
- 'Enter their caves' -
After his party scored a crushing victory in last month's local polls, an emboldened Erdogan hinted he would take steps against Gulen's movement.
"We will enter their caves and ... they will pay the price," he warned in a victory speech from the balcony of his party's Ankara headquarters last month.
"There won't be a state within a state," he said.
The AKP has already pushed through a law to close private preparatory schools, a key part of Gulen's network.
In the PBS interview, Erdogan said his only contact with Gulen since becoming prime minister had been a few phone conversations, and that they had initially maintained "good relations".
"The real problem began after 2011," he said. That was when Erdogan's government accused Gulenists of leaking information from secret talks between the Turkish spy agency and Kurdish rebels.
Erdogan told PBS that the police raids in December were "almost a coup, a civilian coup" by the Gulen movement.
"We were aware they were trying to infiltrate various organisations, but we were not aware of their ultimate bad intentions. We realised this after a while and started to take measures," he said.
Having exhausted his party's limit of three terms as premier, 60-year-old Erdogan is thought to be planning a run for the presidency in August, the first time voters will directly elect the head of state.