Turkish mob boss to gov’t: Why bother with diplomacy? We’ll kill Gülen, his followers

Turkey’s infamous mob boss Alaattin Çakıcı implied in a letter to the Justice Ministry that his mafia network could kill Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen in Pennsylvania and his senior followers elsewhere in the world.

Çakıcı’s letter came weeks after Turkey’s controversial request that the US extradite Gülen.

“Dear Justice Minister, you and the president continually demand the extradition of FETÖ. … Why do you bother with that? There are so many patriots in this glorious nation who are not capable of bringing FETÖ back to the country but are able to bury him in Pennsylvania. They would also die there with pleasure for the sake of this sacred cause. Regardless of their numbers and the countries in which they live, high-ranking FETÖ members could be killed with just a request,” Çakıcı’s letter, published by the Birgün daily on Wednesday, said.

FETÖ — short for Fethullahist Terror Organization — is an abbreviation coined by the government to label the Gülen movement as terrorist despite the lack of a court decision to that effect.

“Please, do not ask the US to extradite this ignoble FETÖ anymore. The patriots of this nation know well how to do away with him and his senior managers,” Çakıcı said, reiterating his earlier remarks at the end of the letter.

The Turkish government accuses the movement of masterminding a July 15 coup attempt, while the movement denies any involvement.

The government as well as the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has on numerous occasions blasted the US for stalling the extradition process. In late August the US said it had received a formal extradition request from Turkey for Gülen, but not over the coup attempt.

Sentenced to 19 years in prison for his ex-wife’s murder, Çakıcı earlier claimed that judges and prosecutors affiliated with the movement blocked a fair trial in his case.