Turkey Issues Arrest Warrant for US Based Cleric Fethullah Gulen

The Turkish government has issued an arrest warrant for a US-based Islamic cleric known as Fethullah Gulen.

Daily Sabah reports that the warrant issued by a Turkish court on behalf of a public prosecutor who had previously asked for the warrant to be issued.

Sabah report the complaint against Gulen seeking the warrant read, "The suspect Fethullah Gulen, the leader of a criminal organization known as "Hizmet" movement, which was structured unlawfully in the economic and bureaucratic institutions, has not returned to the country since he left in 1998."

"Hizmet" translate as "service," and it is used to describe people who are products of Gulen's school system and social network. For example, some of the people who graduate from one of Gulen's more than 140 schools around the world and then go to work expanding that network, would be considered a member of Hizmet. Gulen schools can be found in Turkey, the United States, Asia, Europe, and Africa.

The Turkish government believes that people sympathetic to the Gulen movement have infiltrated the government in an effort to subvert the state.

When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was caught up in a massive corruption scandal in Dec. of 2013, he claimed that the police and prosecutors investigating the claims were acting on behalf of Gulen rather than loyalty to the letter of the law.

Gulen currently resides in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. The issue of a warrant by the Turkish authorities has the potential to create tension in Turkish-US relations because both nations have extradition treaties and it is very unlikely the US would deport Gulen.

The issue of Gulen's arrest warrant comes just days after another crackdown on the Turkish media that saw dozens of journalists and media moguls arrested in a single day, drawing sharp rebukes from the European Union and United States.