Turkey slams US over religious freedom report
Turkey has lashed out at a United States’ commission report scrutinizing the state of religious freedoms in the world for describing Gülen movement referred in Turkey as Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO), as a Sunni group facing persecution by the Turkish government.
“Describing the members of FETO as Sunni Muslims facing persecution openly manifests, from the very beginning, that this report is biased, dislocated from reality and written under the influence of … evil groups,” read a statement issued by Hami Aksoy, spokesman of the Turkish foreign ministry on May 1.
The description of FETÖ in the annual report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) means tolerating terror, Aksoy said, according to Hurriyet Daily nNews.
FETO leader Fetullah Gülen, whom Turkey has sought to extradite from the U.S., and his followers are accused of overthrowing the government, Turkish ministry spokesman added.