04 August 2016•Update: 05 August 2016
By Esra Kaymak Avci
WASHINGTON
A group of Turkish parliamentarians continued Wednesday to pressure the U.S. administration to extradite Fetullah Gulen, leader of Fetullah Terrorist Organization's (FETO) and mastermind of the failed coup attempt last month.
After two days of meetings and briefings with several U.S. officials from the Justice Department, State Department and think tanks, the group's final meetings in the U.S. capital were with the Pentagon and Homeland Security Department authorities.
Saying that they had the opportunity to highlight the importance of the FETO issue more during Wednesday's meetings, Turkish parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee and the Justice and Development (AK) Party's Malatya lawmaker Taha Ozhan told Anadolu Agency that the U.S side started during the meetings to understand how serious this case was for Turkey.
"I hope that these [results of the meetings] become rapidly actual policies and steps are taken over the terror organization's leader and other militants (of FETO)," Ozhan said.
Being with the group, the Republican People's Party (CHP) Istanbul lawmaker Oguz Kaan Salici said the U.S. would cooperate with Turkey during the ongoing legal process for Gulen's extradition.
Another participant of the group, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Erzurum lawmaker Kamil Aydin said the U.S. side was much more serious about the case and promised that they would speed up the process for Gulen's extradition.
"It seems to me that a political will is rapidly occurring over Turkey's seriousness of FETO," he said.
A group of Turkish lawmakers had begun an eight-day visit to the U.S. on Monday to deliver briefings regarding the FETO-led failed coup attempt last month. The team met with several senior U.S. officials, foreign press members and think tanks, where Turkey's extradition request for the coup plot's mastermind, Gulen, was high on the agenda.
The group departed late Wednesday for New York, where they will meet with UN officials.
