Baku, Azerbaijan, April 29
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Fethullah Gulen, the Islamic public figure currently residing in the U.S, will be extradited from the U.S., Turkish TRT Haber TV channel quoted the country's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying on April 29.
Erdogan pointed out that Turkey has launched the legal procedure for extradition of Gulen from the United States.
Gulen, the founder of the Hizmet public movement, as well as, the Turkish Journalists and Writers Foundation, is accused of being involved in a huge wiretapping scandal by the Turkish government.
Following the wiretapping case, Prime Minister Erdogan accused Gulen and representatives of his movement of standing behind the wiretapping of the phone conversations.
Erdogan also stressed that Gulen movement, which he earlier called a "parallel structure", proved with its anti-state activities that it is not a religious movement, but a politicized and illegal structure.
Turkish PM called on Gulen not to intervene in Turkey's internal affairs and accused the U.S. of supporting him.
Earlier, it was reported that Gulen requested political asylum in Canada. Aside from Canada, Gulen also asked for political asylum in New Zealand.
Translated by L.Z.
Edited by: S.I.