Turkey tells Germany to extradite Gulen-linked judges

ANKARA

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has criticized Germany for not extraditing suspects linked to the U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen’s network to Turkey.

In remarks made during an interview on Turkish television channel CNN Turk Thursday, Cavusoglu said: "So there is something we want from Germany too. Many prosecutors and judges of the parallel state structure [Gulen network] escaped to Germany and Germany has to extradite them."

He added that ties between Turkey and U.S. would be affected if the U.S. did not hand over Gulen to Turkey.

Gulen, who heads the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) according to the Turkish government, has been residing in Pennsylvania since 1999.

"Our relations will be affected if the U.S. will not give us Gulen. It is inevitable. We don't want to think about the bad scenarios," he said.

Turkey's government has said the deadly July 15 coup attempt was organized by followers of Gulen and FETO.

Gulen is also accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.

A total number of 246 people, including 62 police officers, five soldiers and 179 civilians were martyred and more than 2,100 others were injured in the coup attempt.

A total of 10,410 people, including 7,423 soldiers, 287 police, 2,014 judges and prosecutors, and 686 civilians have been taken into custody, so far.

Among the 10,410 people, 4,060 of them were arrested, while 5,581 remain in custody.

Meanwhile, more than 66,000 people employed in state institutions have been dismissed from their duties amid a nationwide probe into the July 15 failed coup.

(Reporting by Bayram Altug, Omer Naim Kucuk and Ayse Sarioglu; Writing by Can Erozden)