Flynns affärspartner åtalas för lobbying i Turkiet
Två affärspartners till Trumps tidigare rådgivare Michael Flynn åtalas för olaglig lobbying i Turkiet, rapporterar Washington Post. Bijan Kian misstänks ha agerat som agent för en utländsk regering för att få den turkiske predikanten Fethullah Gülen utlämnad från USA. Den andra åtalade är affärsmannen Ekim Alptekin som ska ha gett pengar till Flynn och Kian.
Utredningen om kopplingarna mellan Flynn och Turkiet startade 2016 efter att Michael Flynn skrivit en gästkrönika i The Hill där han attackerade Fethullah Gülen.
Fethullah Gülen
Wikipedia (en)
Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (born 27 April 1941) is a Turkish preacher, imam, writer, and political figure. He is the founder of the Gülen movement (known as Hizmet meaning service in Turkish), which is a 3-to-6 million strong, volunteer-based movement mostly focused on the education, interfaith dialogue providing primary and secondary education, in Turkey (in which business entities and foundations have been closed down by the Turkish government by the thousands in 2017) and in Africa, Central Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Hizmet's most populous organization is a moderate Islamic advocacy group, Alliance for Shared Values. Gulen lives in exile in the United States, residing in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.Gülen is actively involved in the societal debate concerning the future of the Turkish state, and Islam in the modern world. He has been described in the English-language media as an imam "who promotes a tolerant Islam which emphasises altruism, hard work and education" and as "one of the world's most important Muslim figures." However, James Jeffrey, former American ambassador in Ankara, has claimed that the Gülen movement, aside from its "legal and visible" activities, had infiltrated the Turkish armed forces, police and judiciary.The Gülen movement (often referred as Gulenists) has been characterized as a civil society group promoting education, religious tolerance, and building social networks. Having shared a major goal of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of empowering religious individuals in civil life officially disenfranchised under then existing law in secular Turkey, Gulen and his movement were aligned with Erdoğan prior to 2013. The alliance was destroyed after the 2013 corruption investigations in Turkey. Erdoğan accused Gülen of being behind the corruption investigations. A Turkish criminal court issued an arrest warrant for Gülen. Turkey is demanding the extradition of Gülen from the United States. However, U.S. figures in general do not believe he is associated with any terrorist activity, and have requested evidence to be provided by the Turkish Government to substantiate the allegations in the warrant requesting extradition.He was accused of being against the peace process which had aimed to resolve the long-running Kurdish-Turkish conflict. However, Gülen's supporters dismiss this claim, citing his work with many Kurds.
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