美国国家公共电台 NPR Will The U.S. Extradite An Elderly Turkish Cleric?

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Will The U.S. Extradite An Elderly Turkish Cleric?

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Turkey is ramping¹ up the pressure on the U.S. to extradite an elderly cleric living in America, a cleric that Turkey insists was behind a failed coup² attempt last month. Several Turkish lawmakers are in Washington, D.C., making that case. Any extradition³ would take time. And, as NPR's Michele Kelemen reports, in the end, it depends on international politics as much as any court ruling.

MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE⁴: Turkey's fractious parties seem to be united on one thing - the U.S. should extradite Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who lives in Pennsylvania and whose followers⁵ are being rounded up across Turkey following last month's coup attempt. The chairman of Parliament's commission on foreign affairs, Taha Ozhan, described the aging cleric as a missionary⁶ cult⁷ leader, making a dramatic comparison for American audiences.

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TAHA OZHAN: The importance of bin⁸ Laden⁹, who organized September 11 from cave in Afghanistan was the same as Gulen's importance to Turkey, as he organized the bloody¹⁰ July 15 coup attempt from a small town in United States.

KELEMEN: He and his fellow lawmakers had just met with Justice Department officials about this. And Kamil Aydin of the nationalist MHP party says he got the sense that the U.S. is eager for a solution.

KAMIL AYDIN: I believe that America is going to refuse losing Turkey as a good partnership¹¹ in the region. Of course, they are going to require some documents, which is in the process of being prepared. Now, when we send the rest of documents, it's going to be OK then.

KELEMEN: But it's not that simple. The first step is for Turkey to persuade the Justice Department to bring the case before a U.S. federal judge who will then have to decide if Gulen is extraditable. And the U.S. could slow walk this, says John Parry, a professor at Lewis and Clark Law School.

JOHN PARRY: They could take their time getting the materials presented to the court. Then when the court says the guy's extraditable, it has to go to the secretary of state's office for a review.

KELEMEN: And Parry says, at that point, this becomes a matter of international politics.

PARRY: The extradition process is designed with a diplomatic focus. It's designed to create a process that involves the courts not too much and leaves most of the control in the hands of government officials and diplomatic interests.

KELEMEN: One factor could be whether Gulen would have any chance of a fair trial in a country that's now arresting thousands of his alleged¹² followers. Turkish opposition¹³ lawmaker Oguz Kaan Salici is trying to make sure this crackdown doesn't become a witch hunt.

OGUZ KAAN SALICI: We will support the government's fight against these coup plotters. On the other hand, if they are trying to take some opposition members - let's say from civil society, from opposition parties - they'll be criticizing them.

KELEMEN: Salici is hoping the United States will remind its ally Turkey of the need to return to a normal democracy. He, too, though, wants the U.S. to send Gulen to a Turkish court. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.