News / Turkey

Ankara asks Berlin to arrest major suspect in 2016 coup attempt

Wednesday, 16 August 2017 2:57 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 16 August 2017 2:58 PM ]

Turkey's Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu addresses a joint press conference following the EU-Turkey High Level Political Dialogue meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, July 25, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Turkey has asked Germany to arrest and extradite a major suspect in the coup attempt of July 2016 who remains at large.

Turkish media recently reported that theology lecturer Adil Oksuz, whom Ankara accuses of being the so-called imam of air force personnel who bombed parliament as part of the coup attempt, had been seen in German cities including Frankfurt and Ulm.

Oksuz was detained near an Ankara air base hours after the coup plot was foiled. He was released two days later and has been on the run ever since.

"We sent a diplomatic note to Germany after the news regarding the presence in Germany of the FETO suspect Adil Oksuz, who is currently at large," Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with broadcaster TRT Haber.

FETO is the government's label for supporters of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for masterminding the coup attempt. Gulen has denied the accusation.

The note asked the German authorities to arrest Oksuz without delay and to extradite him to Turkey.

This handout picture released on September 24, 2013 by *Zaman Daily* shows Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, the United States. (Photo by AFP)

Ankara has pressed Washington to extradite Gulen. The United States, however, has not accepted Turkish requests for the extradition so far.

Turkey witnessed the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, when a faction of the Turkish military declared that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was no more in charge of the country. A few hours later, however, the coup was suppressed. Almost 250 people were killed and nearly 2,200 others wounded in the abortive coup.

Since then, Ankara has been engaged in suppressing the media and opposition groups, who were believed to have played a role in the failed putsch.

Over 50,000 people have been arrested and some 150,000 others sacked or suspended from a wide range of professions, including soldiers, police, teachers, and public servants, in the crackdown that followed the coup.

The massive crackdown has been a main cause of deteriorating diplomatic relations between Germany and Turkey. Berlin has repeatedly criticized the crackdown as beyond the rule of law while Ankara insists that the German government has done little to condemn the coup and it has even given sanctuary to alleged plotters.

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