US pastor in Turkish jail while Gulen dominates talks
Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called on US President-elect Donald Trump today to extradite Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylania-based Sunni cleric who was named as the mastermind of the July 15 coup attempt. Yildirim told a news conference that Gulen's delivery to the Turkish authorities would help improve stormy relations between the two NATO allies.
Yet just as Gulen’s presence in the United States remains a thorn in Turkish-US ties, so too is the incarceration of American Pastor Andrew Brunson, whose case has gone largely unnoticed in Turkey but not in the United States.
Turkish officials who spoke on strict condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor that they had been flooded with letters about Brunson’s plight, including many from Congress.
In a stiff editorial for Fox News, Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahama aired their concerns, saying that Turkey had yet to provide compelling evidence of the pastor’s guilt.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/01/turkey-asks-trump-extradite-gulen.html#ixzz4WGrifG8i
This could be another challenge to the Trump Administration, I say we will NOT hand over Gulen unless they have some solid info. That can mean Turkey gets closer to Russia, that's not good. So this is difficult. It's difficult dealing with the Islamic world.
EU investigated if Gulen pulled off the coup and one has to read it for themselves but in a word, "No"
EU spy agency says Gülen not behind July 15 coup attempt
A report prepared by the EU Intelligence Analysis Centre (IntCen) has revealed that although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Turkish government immediately put the blame for a July 15 failed coup attempt on the faith-based Gülen movement, the coup attempt was staged by a range of Erdoğan’s opponents due to fears of an impending purge, according to a report by The Times newspaper.
Continued At: https://www.turkishminute.com/2017/01/17/eu-spy-agency-says-gulen-not-behind-july-15-coup-attempt/
Those people who write this are Turks but I read an editorial where they referred to Erdogan's "Islamic Thugs". I met a Turk once who was largely "secular".
Some of those people in that part of the world do like us, hopefully, we can shore something up. Someone's going to hate you no matter what.
