Source. Asia Times.

The Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s sensational demand on Saturday to US President Barack Obama to extradite the Islamist preacher Fetullah Gulen living in exile in Pennsylvania does not come as surprise. It had to happen sooner or later.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan told his supporters on Saturday that although he had shared with Barack Obama the intelligence on a likely coup attempt by Gulen’s followers, the US President sat on it

But then, Erdogan has chosen to speak publicly on such a highly sensitive issue instead of using the confidential channels of communication.

Any long-time observer of Erdogan and his political personality can make out that he is taunting Obama within the week of the NATO summit in Warsaw. These are excerpts from Erdogan’s public remarks in Istanbul on Saturday:

• Please meet our request (on Gulen’s extradition) if we (Turkey and US) are strategic partners. I asked you (Obama) previously either to deport him or surrender him to Turkey. I told you that he is considering the coup d’etat, but you didn’t listen.

The crowd listening to Erdogan began chanting, “Death to Fetullah.”

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