Amnesty International Turkey Director Associated With Gulen - Turkish FM

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Amnesty International's Turkey Director Idil Eser is a member of the movement of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, referred to as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) by Ankara.

ANKARA (Sputnik) — Amnesty International's Turkey Director Idil Eser is associated with the movement of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, referred to as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) by Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday.

"Amnesty International has been working in Turkey and it has been doing so freely. But the Amnesty International head is a FETO member, she has contacted FETO ringleaders abroad. So what is the connection with her membership to Amnesty? We can only expedite the investigation," Cavusoglu said at a press conference following EU-Turkey talks in Brussels.

According to Cavusoglu, Europe and the United States do not consider FETO as a terrorist organization, adding that Turkey's attitude toward FETO is seen by Europe as an attack on rights and freedoms in Turkey.

Six human rights activists, including Eser, were detained in Ankara on July 5 on suspicion of assisting Gulen's followers. On July 18, a Turkish court ruled that the detained human rights activists should remain in custody.

In July 2016, a failed military coup took place in Turkey, leaving over 240 people killed and some 2,000 injured. After the incident, Ankara introduced a national state of emergency, facilitating waves of arrests across the country which targeted mostly officials, legal and educational workers over their alleged ties to the movement of the US-based Gulen, who nevertheless rejected the accusations and condemned the coup attempt.