Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Fethullah Gulen, who was involved in the military coup attempt in Turkey, has admitted that he has always supported the West, the Haber Turk newspaper reported July 26 citing Gulen’s interview published in the New York Times.
Reportedly, Gulen has said that the West, including the US, has always needed moderate Islam. Fethullah Gulen attributed his movement to moderate Islam. Gulen also called on the US authorities not to extradite him to Turkey.
Earlier, Turkish presidential administration told Trend that Ankara will do its best to extradite Fethullah Gulen, who is considered to be the organizer of the coup attempt.
According to the administration, the coup attempt shows that Turkey was facing the threat of a terrorist attack.
"The fight against Gulen’s movement still remains one of Turkey’s main priorities," the administration said.
The administration also stressed that if the US is a strategic partner of Turkey, it should extradite Gulen to Turkey.
The administration added that the extradition of Gulen will greatly weaken the terrorist organization, which is hostile to the interests of the Turkish people.
On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them.
However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people excluding the coup plotters and over 2,000 people were wounded.
Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20.
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