Confused Austrian paper says Erdoğan asked US to extradite former Turkish president

Austria's largest newspaper by circulation, the Kronen Zeitung, commonly known as the Krone and often directs fierce criticisms at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became a laughingstock after confusing former President Abdullah Gül with Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) leader Fetullah Gülen.

In its article published Wednesday on Erdoğan's meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump the day before, the paper said the two leaders talked about the extradition of the FETÖ leader to Turkey. While that is correct, the paper said the leader of the terror cult was Abdullah Gül, whose extradition Turkey sought, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Gül was actually Turkey's president between 2007 and 2014.

Gülen, on the other hand, is a fugitive who has lived in the U.S. since 1999 and is being tried in absentia for last year's deadly failed attempt. He, as the leader of FETÖ, is accused of being the instigator of the deadly coup attempt, which left 248 people dead and nearly 2,200 injured, through his operatives in the military.

The paper was also apparently baffled about the constitutional reforms accepted in a referendum last month, which started Turkey's transformation from a parliamentary to a presidential system. Rather than identifying Erdoğan as the president, which he has been since 2014, he was portrayed as the sultan of Turkey, seemingly unaware that no such post has existed since the end of the Ottoman Empire.