Erdogan: Turkey to keep fighting against 'dark network'

ANKARA

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the state would continue to take legal action against a "dark network" operating against the country.

"We have been carrying out domestic and international judicial process for the extradition of Fetullah Gulen and his supporters to Turkey. We will seize Gulen and his supporters as we seized those who wiretapped phones," Erdogan said in an address at the Presidential Place in Ankara.

The ‘parallel state’, known also by the initials FETO/PDY, refers to an organization purportedly led by Fetullah Gulen, a U.S.-based preacher accused of plotting to overthrow the Turkish government by infiltrating state institutions, including the police and judiciary.

Stating that “no one should test Turkey and the Turkish people with terror”, Erdogan added: "Those who attacked the independence of Turkey and betrayed the Turkish people are answering before the law now."

"The investigations carried out for two years have revealed all the dark relations of this network. [...] Turkey is no longer a weak country which can be easily unbalanced," he said.

The ‘parallel’ organization is also said to be behind a December 2013 corruption investigation into senior Turkish government figures, including ministers, and has been accused of wiretapping conversations, official misconduct, forgery plus the illegal acquisition and storage of personal data.

Since early 2014, investigations into the parallel state have seen hundreds of civil servants, including police and public prosecutors, arrested or reassigned.

ANKARA

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the state would continue to take legal action against a "dark network" operating against the country.

"The investigations carried out for two years have revealed all the dark relations of this network. [...] Turkey is no longer a weak country which can be easily unbalanced," he said.

Since early 2014, investigations into the parallel state have seen hundreds of civil servants, including police and public prosecutors, arrested or reassigned.