Interpol rejects Turkey’s 773 red notice requests on FETÖ: Official

ISTANBUL

Being hesitant to extradite FETÖ-linked suspects, Interpol has rejected the Turkish authorities’ 773 red notice requests, senior officials have said.

Speaking at the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee on the law proposal to hold the 89th General Assembly of Interpol in Istanbul, Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kıran said that 93 people with arrest warrants have been extradited to Turkey since March 2020 despite the pandemic conditions.

Informing that three people were caught in Ankara and extradited to the relevant countries during the same period, Kıran stated that the number of people who have been extradited to other countries since 1982 was 1,644.

Kıran also stressed that Interpol was “hesitant” in extradition requests of FETÖ-linked suspects, noting that the cooperation between Ankara and Interpol on FETÖ was not at the desired level.

Ankara accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

“The general assembly in Istanbul will be an important opportunity. We will explain in detail to the participants our rightful position regarding our fight against terrorist organizations such as FETÖ, PKK/KCK, ISIL, DHKP-C and our rejected red notices,” Kıran added.

Turkey will host the 89th General Assembly of Interpol on Nov. 20-25 in Istanbul as it pursues a more constructive stance in its relations with the agency.

Indicating that cooperation could not be achieved on three issues in relations with Interpol, Kıran listed these issues as rejecting Ankara’s red notice and extradition requests, removing the red notices and deleting the data entries made by the Turkish authorities to the “Lost and Stolen Travel Documents System.”

Lütfi Çiçek, the head of Europol Department of the Interior Ministry, emphasized that the red notice can be issued between three and six days in cases of security-related, smuggling and similar crimes, but some problems arose when it comes to FETÖ.

“Interpol General Secretariat rejected our red notice requests for FETÖ on the assumption that the July 15, 2016 coup attempt was a military crime, a political crime,” Çiçek said, adding that the number of requests denied so far is 773.

The July 15, 2016 coup d’état attempt, which was orchestrated by FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen, resulted in the deaths of 251 people and 2,734 injured.

After the coup attempt, Turkey canceled the passports of those primarily connected to FETÖ and submitted their information to Interpol databases with red notice requests.