Soldiers sent to apprehend Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during last week’s failed coup attempt were told they were to “capture an important terrorist leader,” according to the country’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
The soldiers involved in the president’s apprehension were informed of the details of the coup as they were being airlifted to a hotel in a resort town where Erdogan and his family were vacationing during Friday’s deadly attempted takeover.
It is unclear how many soldiers participated in the attack, during which two of Erdogan’s bodyguards were killed, and it is unclear how loyal the troops were, given that they were briefed on the coup so late in proceedings.
Security sources told Anadolu that suspected links to the coup were interrogated in the city of Izmir Monday.
Meanwhile, Erdogan’s military aide, Lt. Col. Erkan Kivrak, has been taken into custody in southern Turkey for alleged ties to the plotters, according to Anadolu reports.
Two other officers accused of being part of the coup leadership were remanded in custody when they appeared separately in court late Tuesday, a military official said.
Lt. Gen. Metin Iyidil, commander of the Land Forces Training and Doctrine Command, and the chief of general staff’s former legal adviser, Col. Muharrem Kose, appeared in court in Ankara, the official said, told Anadolu on condition of anonymity.
The exact charges against the two officers were not specified.
Security forces gutted
The request for Gulen’s extradition is the latest move by the Turkish government to rein in dissent in the country.
More than 9,300 people are in detention in the fallout from the failed coup, Kurtulmus said.
The government has gutted some of the security forces, dismissing almost 9,000 people from the Interior Ministry, mostly police officers, and hundreds of others from various ministries.
Among those detained are at least 118 generals and admirals, accounting for a third of the general-rank command of the Turkish military, according to Turkish state broadcaster TRT.
Some 15,200 public education employees were suspended and are being investigated for possible links to Gulen, the Ministry of Education said.
Authorities have revoked the licenses of 21,000 teachers working in private education institutions who are being investigated under the same auspices, state news agency Anadolu reported.
More than 80 judges are also among those arrested, as are lawyers, senior aides and police.
WikiLeaks releases emails
Whistleblower site WikiLeaks seems to think Turkey’s purge has spread to cyberspace. It said it has come under a sustained cyberattack after announcing on social media its plan to leak hundreds of thousands of documents on “Turkish power.”
The WikiLeaks website on Tuesday evening leaked 300,000 emails and thousands of documents in the wake of the failed coup. Access to the documents is restricted in Turkey due to “violation of privacy and publication of illegally obtained data,” a Turkish official told CNN.
The website appeared operational Tuesday, and WikiLeaks said it planned to go ahead with publishing the #ErdoganEmails, adding that all 300,000 were internal to Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party.
The most recent emails were sent July 6 and the oldest dates back to 2010, the group said.
It was unclear when the other 500,000 documents would be released. The organization said the emails date up until July 7.
Rival’s extradition requested
On Tuesday Turkey formally requested the extradition of cleric Fethullah Gulen from the United States, the Prime Minister said Tuesday, as the government widens its purge following a failed military coup over the weekend.
U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with his Turkish counterpart Tuesday about the coup and the status of the popular figure, who is in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.
Obama once again “strongly condemned” the coup attempt and “expressed his support for Turkish democracy,” according to a White House press release.
The U.S. leader said that his administration would provide “appropriate assistance” to Turkish authorities investigating the attempted coup, but the statement did not specify if this would include extraditing Gulen.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that any formal extradition request would be evaluated under the terms of a treaty between the two countries. “We’ve been clear that that is an evidenced-based process,” Earnest told reporters Tuesday.
Erdogan blames Gulen, a longtime bitter rival, for the attempted coup that began Friday night, leaving at least 232 people dead and leading to mass arrests and dismissals.
He told CNN in an exclusive interview Monday that the extradition request was coming soon.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced the request Tuesday in Parliament and on Twitter referred to Gulen as a “terrorist leader.”
The Muslim cleric has denied any involvement in the coup attempt.
Gulen, in a statement released Tuesday, said Erdogan “once again demonstrated he will go to any length necessary to solidify his power and persecute his critics. It is ridiculous, irresponsible and false to suggest I had anything to do with the horrific failed coup. I urge the U.S. government to reject any effort to abuse the extradition process to carry out political vendettas.”
The reclusive cleric leads a popular movement called Hizmet, which includes hundreds of secular co-ed schools, free tutoring centers, hospitals and relief agencies credited with addressing Turkey’s social problems.
Can Gulen be extradited?
Under the U.S.-Turkey extradition agreement, Washington can only extradite a person if he or she has committed an “extraditable act.” Treason — such as that implied by Erdogan’s demand for Gulen’s extradition — is not listed as such an act in the countries’ treaty.
When asked what evidence the government had that Gulen was behind the coup, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Tuesday that the attempt itself was the biggest piece of evidence, and that Turkey would provide thousands of pieces of evidence to the United States of Gulen’s involvement.
