Turkish FM:

Russia Recognized Threat Posed by Gulen ‘From Beginning’

Date: 19 August 2016 - 21:37

News ID: ۳۰۲۰۷

MOSCOW (FNA) – Russia recognized the dangers posed by Turkish self-exiled opposition leader Fethullah Gulen long before Turkey did, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during an exclusive interview.
"The danger, the threat which we did not see in the past, Russia recognized from the beginning. We thought that the followers of this movement are good citizens of the country, people of faith, but we could not even suspect that they are secret agents," Cavusoglu said in his exclusive interview to the Sputnik new agency.
The minister also reiterated that Ankara had sent all documents necessary for Gulen’s extradition, including proof of his involvement in the coup, to the United States.
The Cavusoglu comments came days after Renowned western and Arab media outlets and journalists confirmed that Russia had warned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of an imminent coup by the army on July 15, a revelation that appeared in an FNA report last month.
A July 20 FNA report, quoting Rai Alyoum, revealed that Turkey's President Erdogan had been alerted by Russia against an imminent army coup hours before it was initiated, and added that Erdogan asked his supporters to remain in the streets after receiving advice from Tehran.
Several Arab media outlets, including Rai Alyoum, quoted diplomatic sources in Ankara as saying that Turkey's National Intelligence Organization, known locally as the MIT, received intel from its Russian counterpart that warned of an impending coup in the Muslim state.
Now Rai Alyoum Editor-in-Chief Abdel Bari Atwan has stepped forward and once again confirmed the report in an interview with Russia Today Arabic news network, saying, "The Russian intelligence came to find out about the coup in Turkey before anyone else and the Russian President informed his Turkish counterpart in an urgent hotline phone call."
Asked about his sources and the reliability of his report, the renowned journalist said, "We earned this piece of news from several sources; the Russian intelligence service had managed to monitor and pick up abnormal and massive moves of the Turkish army through the Tartus base in Syria."
He further stated that the move has caused a U-Turn in President Erdogan's foreign policy towards Russia, especially with regard to Syria.