Alleged coup leader was once military attaché to Israel


Turkish retired air force chief Akin Ozturk, file (YouTube screenshot)

Turkish media on Saturday named former Turkish Air Force chief Akın Ozturk as one of the main instigators of the country’s attempted coup on Friday.

Ozturk, who led he air force between 2013 and 2015 before retiring from the army last year, was also the nation’s military attaché to Israel in the 1990s; he served in the Jewish state between 1996-1998.

Turkey’s president has also blamed a US-based cleric for being behind the failed takeover attempt. Washington has said it would entertain an extradition request for Fethullah Gulen.

But US Secretary of State John Kerry also said that Turkey’s government would have to prove Gulen’s wrongdoing.

Visiting Luxembourg, Kerry said Turkey hasn’t yet requested that the United States send home Gulen, who left Turkey in 1999.

Gulen has harshly condemned the attempted coup attempt by military officers that resulted in a night of explosions, air battles and gunfire that left dozens dead. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is blaming the chaos on the cleric, who lives in exile in Pennsylvania and promotes a philosophy that blends a mystical form of Islam with staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue.

Erdogan has long accused Gulen, a former ally, of trying to overthrow the government. Washington has never found any evidence particularly compelling previously.

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