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Turkey: More Than 6,000 Arrested Following Failed Coup

HeadlineJul 18, 2016

The government of Turkey has arrested more than 6,000 people accused of participating in a failed military coup over the weekend. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania, of masterminding the coup. Gülen has lived in the U.S. since 1999, when he fled Turkey after being accused of organizing religious extremists against the government. He had been an ally of Erdogan until a few years ago. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the U.S. still has not received a formal extradition request for Gülen.

Secretary of State John Kerry: “We have not had a formal request for extradition. That has to come in a formal package. It has to come with documentation for the request, and go to the Justice Department. And we will deal with it.”

Erdogan attended funerals over the weekend for some of the nearly 200 civilians killed in Friday’s attempted coup. Supporters of Erdogan continued to celebrate across the country today. Other citizens found an uneasy calm on Monday as the coup appeared to have been definitively defeated. There is fear that Erdogan, who before the coup was accused of becoming an autocrat, will use the coup to justify further actions against his political opponents.

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