Extraditing
Gulen Would Betray American Values
by John Rossomando
IPT News
December 3, 2018
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 Extraditing
dissident Islamist cleric Fethullah Gulen to Turkey would be a betrayal of
American values and should be permanently off the table. President Trump says
that handing over Gulen to Turkey is not under consideration "at this
point." That's not good enough.
NBC News reported on Nov. 15 that administration officials were
considering Turkey's request to extradite Gulen, who has lived in
Pennsylvania since 1998. It cited two senior U.S. officials who said that
the Justice Department and FBI were asked to reopen Turkey's extradition
case against Gulen in October. Inquiries were made about his immigration
status. This consideration reportedly aimed to placate Turkey by handing over
Gulen in exchange for taking diplomatic heat off of Saudi Arabia in the
wake of the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Since the murder, Turkey has orchestrated a campaign of slow leaks and disclosures
designed to keep the story in the news and to expose Saudi lies about what
happened.
The two leaders reportedly met privately for nearly an hour Saturday
during the G20 summit. It isn't known whether the Gulen issue was
discussed.
Turkish officials previously requested Gulen's extradition after a 2016 attempted
coup, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan baselessly blames on
Gulen. He has gone from being an Erdogan ally to being his scapegoat.
Turkey calls Gulen's followers the "Fethullah Terrorist
Organization" and accuses them of trying to build a parallel state by
allegedly infiltrating state institutions, particularly the military,
police and judiciary.
Freedom of thought and speech have vanished in Turkey. People even have
been imprisoned for appearing in a documentary about Gulen.
Turkish authorities accuse dissenters of being Gulenists regardless of
whether they belong to the movement, dissidents told The Investigative
Project on Terrorism (IPT). Erdogan bragged in April that Turkish operatives had kidnapped
80 Gulenists and brought them back to Turkey. He also vowed to nab Gulen.
"You, who are in Pennsylvania, will also come," Erdogan said
of Gulen.
More than 82,000 people have been arrested since the failed coup, and
more than 200,000 have been detained. Another 6,000 academics have been
fired, 319 journalists have been arrested and 189 independent media outlets
have been shut down, according
to TurkeyPurge.com. Independent media critical of the Erdogan regime no
longer exists.
Gulen would face an uncertain fate if he were to be extradited. Amnesty
International noted in January that Turkish prisoners face torture
and beatings, and Erdogan would most certainly want to make an example of
his rival. And if Turkey restores the death penalty for accused terrorists –
which is how Erdogan describes Gulen, handing him over could become a death
sentence.
Extraditing Gulen would send a message that America no longer is a
"beacon" of freedom and that President Trump is weak, Turkish
dissidents purged by the Erdogan regime tell the IPT.
Abdullah Bozkurt, former
editor of Today's Zaman, one of Turkey's largest newspapers
before Turkish authorities shut it down in 2016, underscored his belief
that handing over Gulen would be a sign of weakness.
President Reagan's support for Soviet dissidents offers "a sharp
contrast to what Trump is rumored to be contemplating. I thought Trump read
Erdogan better than what Obama did which was an appeasement," said Bozkurt,
who was purged by Erdogan in 2016. "It signals a weakness which
Erdogan smells and wants to exploit for his own benefit."
Bozkurt contrasts Trump's approach to Gulen with the president's
approach to formerly imprisoned American Evangelical Pastor Andrew Brunson.
In Brunson's case, Trump imposed economic sanctions on Turkey to force it
to let him go. In Gulen's case, Bozkurt sees the administration vacillating
and is less committed to the cause of human rights.
Extraditing Gulen would be a "point of no return" for
America's international reputation because it would send the message that
other Turkish dissidents cannot rely on American principles, said Ahmet
Yayla, a former Turkish National Police counterterrorism official purged by
Erdogan in 2015.
Like Erdogan, Gulen is an Islamist, but his ideology poses less of a
threat to the U.S. and the West than Erdogan's totalitarianism and
pro-terrorist policies. In contrast with other Islamists, for example,
Gulen views the issue of women's headscarves as a matter of
personal choice. He also worries about Erdogan's Turkey "providing haven to
violent radicals and pushing its Kurdish citizens into desperation, would
be a nightmare for Middle East security."
This has already happened.
Turkish government officials ordered police not to intercept ISIS and
al-Qaida fighters crossing into Syria, Yayla said. "It would be a
mistake to regard the AKP and al-Qaida as enemies."
Hacked emails leaked in 2016 disclosed that a company belonging to Erdogan's
son-in-law, Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, profited from the
illicit sale of ISIS oil. Turkey's intelligence agency, the MIT, provided assistance to ISIS and al-Qaida in Syria,
according to Kurdish sources. Charities linked to both terrorist groups operate openly in
Turkey according to Bozkurt's Stockholm Center for Freedom.
Erdogan publicly says that Hamas is not a terrorist group. "It is a
resistance movement that defends the Palestinian homeland against an
occupying power," Erdogan wrote on his official Twitter account in May.
Hamas leader Salah Arouri, listed
as a specially designated terrorist by the U.S., operated from Turkish soil for several years until
2015. Hamas military representatives still
work in Turkey. Israel's Shin Bet found
that Turkey also funds and helps equip Hamas using corporate intermediaries
like SADAT International Defense Consulting, founded and
chaired by key Erdogan adviser Brig. Gen. Adnan Tanriverdi.
Instead of looking to violate U.S. human rights principles by
potentially handing over Gulen, President Trump must take a hard line
against Turkey's rogue-state activities.
Related Topics: John
Rossomando, Turkey,
Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, purge
on dissidents, Fethullah
Gulen, Donald
Trump, Jamal
Khashoggi, Abdullah
Bozkurt, Ahmet
Yayla, coup
attempt, Andrew
Brunson
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