(MENAFN- The Peninsula) AFP
Ankara: Turkey said yesterday it had received 'positive signals” from the US over its requests to extradite Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, 75, whom Ankara accuses of ordering last month";s failed coup attempt.
'We have started to receive some positive signals on the calls we have made” for Gulen";s extradition, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters, adding more documents for his deportation were being drawn up.
Gulen is accused of ordering the failed July 15 coup during which a group within the military tried to remove President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power. The cleric denies the claim. Since then, Turkey has sent several documents to the US which Ankara claims prove that Gulen was involved.
Last week, an arrest warrant was issued in Turkey for Gulen. Cavusoglu said US Vice-President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry had expressed intention to come to Turkey.
Meanwhile, Gulen said he would hand himself over to Turkish authorities if an independent international investigative body found him guilty. 'If a tenth of the accusations against me are established, I pledge to return to Turkey and serve the heaviest sentence,” Gulen said in an opinion piece in French daily Le Monde.
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