Turkey has sent multiparty parliamentary delegations to half a dozen Western countries, including the United States, Canada and Britain, to explain the Erdogan government’s massive crackdown following a failed July 15 coup and press the US government for extradition of opposition figure Fethullah Gulen.
In Washington on Aug. 1, Taha Ozhan, a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and chairman of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told a small audience at The Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, a think tank that is close to the Turkish government, that “almost 99% of Turks think the coup was orchestrated by Gulen himself.”