Extradition move resurfaces for Gulen

On Monday, federal prosecutors charged two men accused of illegally lobbying for the extradition of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen, who has lived legally in Saylorsburg, Monroe County, since 1999, is wanted by the Turkish government under President Tayyip Recep Erdogan for allegedly spearheading a coup in the country in 2016.

Gulen’s followers maintain that they are not a political organization and they believe the coup was staged in order for Erdogan to consolidate power.

This week, federal prosecutors charged Bijan Kian, a business partner of disgraced National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin with conspiring to illegally influence U.S. politicians in an effort to have Gulen extradited to Turkey.

The news came after rumors that President Trump may have promised Erdogan he would help extradite Gulen to Turkey.

The nonprofit which represents Gulen’s movement here in the United States praised the justice department for respecting the rule of law, even amid the rumors that Trump has considered working to extradite Gulen to appease Turkey, which is angry about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi embassy located in Turkey.

“The charging of Bijan Kian and Ekim Alptekin for conspiracy against Mr. Gulen and for acting as an unregistered foreign agent shows just how far the Erdogan government will go in breaking U.S. law. It comes as no surprise since the Turkish government has stamped out the rule of law in its own country — jailing the most journalists in the world, persecuting hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and failing to call for an impartial international inquiry of the failed July 2016 coup attempt,” a statement from the Alliance for Shared Values said.

ASV’s executive director, Dr. Alp Aslandogan, said in an interview with the Times News before the recent arrests that Turkey has increased the pressure on the U.S. government to extradite Gulen ever since the coup in 2016.

Gulen has maintained that he had nothing to do with the coup, and his movement is not a political one. ASV believes that the coup may have been staged by Erdogan to help consolidate power in the country, and jail journalists and independent officials.

Aslandogan said he has been grateful to the U.S. government for adhering to its laws and not giving in to pressure from Turkey to bend them in order to extradite Gulen.

“We know that the Turkish government, at every opportunity they press the American government, during the Obama administration and this administration — to get Gulen,” Aslandogan said.

“We have been facing threats from the Turkish government and its registered and unregistered foreign agents since even before the July 2016 coup attempt, though it continues to surprise us the lengths the Erdogan regime will go to persecute innocent people and try to persuade the U.S. government without having sufficient evidence.”

Aslandogan said it appears that Erdogan’s regime saw the Trump administration as a new opportunity to attempt to extradite Gulen, but so far he has not seen a big difference in the Trump Administration’s approach to the issue from the previous administration.

“We are worried, but in terms of the US government’s general attitude or treatment of the movement, we don’t see any difference. The government works as it should. They are held to law and don’t do anything beyond the law,” he said.

“We don’t expect Turkey to stop trying to influence the U.S. government using whatever means it has available. The Erdogan regime will continue to spend millions of dollars in the United States trying to make things happen. But the U.S. judicial system has shown thus far that it is not susceptible to such pressures and efforts,” Aslandogan

Gulen is 80 years old, suffers from cardiovascular disease and diabetes. His home in Saylorsburg, the Golden Generation Retreat Center, is used as a base to greet followers of his movement “hizmet,” meaning service. It has been called a compound but there are no walls other than a gate at the entrance.

The hizmet movement is based around service to others, and interfaith dialogue. Aslandogan said Gulen advocates a version of Islam that does not condemn other faiths, but rather seeks to work together with them.