Turkish PM warns US Muslims of ‘FETÖ terrorism’

WASHINGTON - Anadolu Agency

There is no difference between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), said Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım on Nov. 9, saying both terror groups “violate the sacred values of Islam.”

“The leader of FETÖ is no cleric, he is a bloody terrorist,” Yıldırım said in a speech at the Diyanet Center of America (DCA), also known as the Turkish-American Community Center and Mosque Complex in Lanham, Maryland.

He criticized how Fethullah Gülen, accused of masterminding Turkey’s July 2016 coup attempt and still living in the United States, has “corrupted and fooled many Muslims.”

“FETÖ’s main goal was to infiltrate the Turkish state and put it under his control. And they killed Muslims to reach their goal,” Yıldırım added, referring to the coup attempt that killed 250 people and left 2,200 injured.

He warned Muslims living in the U.S. to “stay away from schools and cultural centers affiliated with the FETÖ network.”

“Don’t accept FETÖ supporters among you and don’t allow them to mislead you,” he added.

‘They should pay the price’

Since the coup attempt, Ankara has continued “to decipher the secret structures of this bloody terrorist organization within the boundary of the law,” Yıldırım said, warning that although FETÖ “has lost its influence in Turkey, it still continues to carry out a dark campaign against us on an international scale.”

“Citizens in our country know about the misinformation games played by FETÖ terrorists. I also know that our citizens living abroad aren’t fooled by these games either,” he added.

Ankara has been seeking the extradition of Gülen from the U.S. since the coup attempt and he has been indicted in several cases relating to the coup attempt in Turkey.

Yıldırım is expected to discuss the extradition issue in his meeting with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Nov. 9 at the White House, pressing for faster action on the issue.