Could the Trump administration send Fethullah G眉len back to Turkey?
Fethullah G眉len leads a reclusive existence in his Pennsylvania compound. Much may hinge on whether or not he remains there.
An extradition request for the cleric, filed by Turkey鈥檚 government in September, remains under review, as Turkish impatience grows over the fate of a man that some call a Turkish Osama bin Laden 鈥� but whom skeptics describe as little more than a scapegoat for Turkey's power-hungry president.
This weekend,聽Mr. G眉len聽is emerging at the center of US controversy, after ex-CIA director James Woolsey 聽he had been present at a September meeting between top Turkish officials and President Trump鈥檚 former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, in which the two sides discussed ways to deliver聽G眉len into Turkish custody.
"You might call it brainstorming. But it was brainstorming about a very serious matter that would pretty clearly be a violation of law,鈥� Mr. Woolsey told the newspaper, while cautioning that 鈥渁 specific plan to undertake a felonious act鈥� was never formulated in his presence.
鈥淚t was suspicious, it was concerning, and聽I felt I needed to say something to somebody, but was it a clear plot that they were going to seize him? No,鈥� .
A spokesman for Flynn, who was paid over $500,000 to lobby for Turkish interests聽during his time as an advisor to President Trump, has denied the claim.聽
"The claim made by Mr. Woolsey that General Flynn, or anyone else in attendance, discussed physical removal of Mr. Gulen from the United States during a meeting with Turkish officials in New York is false,鈥� said Flynn's spokesman, Price Floyd, in a statement.
Woolsey鈥檚 accusation underscores the remarkable importance of聽G眉len, who rejects any allegations of involvement with the July coup attempt. And it animates questions about how US-Turkey relations might shift under the Trump administration, at a time when Turkey鈥檚 war against Syrian Kurds is complicating the United States鈥櫬爋wn proxy-led campaign against ISIS.
Many US military leaders see the Kurdish peshmerga fighters as the best suited to defeat ISIS, perhaps in part because the peshmerga聽hope to establish a Kurdish homeland that could encompass territory currently controlled by ISIS. But that territory in northern Syria also adjoins Turkey, which opposes the idea and considers the YPG, the main group of Kurdish fighters, just another wing of a separatist terrorist group operating within Turkey.
Trump has praised the peshmerga. But as the US-led coalition sets its sights on the ISIS capital of Raqqa, whether to approve a detailed Obama-era blueprint for backing the Syrian Kurds in that fight, as Foreign Policy reported on March 3.聽
Little has emerged about the new administration鈥檚 approach in the three weeks since. As the clock ticks, Turkey has sent forces to fight ISIS in towns west of Raqqa, in an apparent bid to wage its own campaign to capture the city. And it聽has continued to pressure the US to step away from the Kurds and embrace its own government as a principal anti-ISIS ally.聽
Turkey has not said how it would react if the Trump administration puts its chips on the Kurds. As a separate Foreign Policy article noted, though, two factors : US military bases located in southern Turkey, close to war zones in Iraq and Syria, and a recent Turkish warming to Russia, as relations with Europe deteriorate.
G眉len, whose teaching blends moderate Islam with an emphasis on social missions of a secular sort, possesses a considerable following in Turkey. And a report from Britain's Parliament, released Saturday,聽concluded that in the coup plot, reported Al Jazeera, though it found little evidence to suggest that the movement's leaders and organizations conspired together to overthrow Recep Tayyip Erdo臒an, president of Turkey.
The Foreign Affairs Committee "knows too little for itself about who was聽responsible for the coup attempt in Turkey, or about the 鈥楪ulenists鈥� ... whom the Turkish government聽exclusively blames for the coup,鈥� said the report.聽
Other European officials have also cast doubt on Turkey鈥檚 claims. In an interview published last Saturday, the聽head of Germany鈥檚 foreign intelligence service, Bruno Kahl, that G眉len was responsible.
"Turkey has tried to convince us on a number of different levels. But they haven't yet been successful,鈥� Mr. Kahl told magazine Der Spiegel, before going on to attribute it to Mr. Erdo臒an's desire to push out non-loyalists in the government.
"Even before July 15, the government had launched a large wave of purges. That is why elements within the military thought they should quickly launch a coup before they too were purged. But it was too late and they were purged as well,鈥� he said.
"The consequences of the putsch that we have seen would have happened anyway, if perhaps not as deep and radical. The coup was likely just a welcome pretext."
A spokesman for Erdo臒an聽 what it refers to as the 鈥淕眉lenist Terrorist Organization鈥�, or FETO, notes the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
"It's an effort to invalidate all the information we have given them on FETO. It's a sign of their support for FETO," Ibrahim Kalin told CNN Turk. "Why are they protecting them? Because these are useful instruments for Germany to use against Turkey."
