At a meeting in Chicago, U.S. experts who are studying the Gülenist Terror Group's (FETÖ) corruption said the group poses a serious threat for the future of the United States.
Introducing the book "Empire of Deceit: An Investigation of the Gülen Charter School Network," which presents the results of an investigation by Amsterdam & Partners on the issue, the meeting at the Turkish embassy in Chicago hosted Mark Hall, the producer, director and screenwriter for the documentary "Killing Ed," and John Martin, the lawyer who is investigating the claims of corruption.
"It was not a surprise for me to see that the coup attempt was plotted by FETÖ," Hall said, adding that he already started to work on the documentary before the coup attempt.
Emphasizing that his documentary portrays the works of FETÖ in detail, Hall said that most Americans are not informed on the activities of this group. Hall also warned that in the future, the U.S. could confront a similar threat that Turkey faced last year unless it stops the activities of the FETÖ.Highlighting that "Killing Ed" and "The Empire of Deceit" are totally different projects, Martin said that both reached results that coincide with each other. "The coup attempt in Turkey showed that it is an important contradiction that FETÖ continues its activities in the U.S.," Martin said, calling the coup attempt a big disappointment.
Similar to Hall, Martin pointed at FETÖ's potential to pose a serious threat to the U.S. "FETÖ is very effective on politicians, local groups and authorities. I think that in the future, graduates from the FETÖ schools that work in the U.S. government will be influenced by the ideas of the terrorist group," Martin said, adding that it is not exactly known how and with which purposes FETÖ uses the charity it collects, which is another subject that should be elaborated.
Umut Acar, Turkey's consul general in Chicago, said they were carrying out intensive work to inform American citizens about FETÖ's activities.
"Today's event was part of this work. Today, American speakers talked about FETÖ and the corruption instances involving charter schools affiliated with this structure," he said.
Acar said the allegations of tax corruption against the FETÖ-affiliated charter schools were also discussed during the event. "We think that investigating such allegations is for the benefit of the U.S. citizens and government, which are very sensitive about tax issues," he added.
Acar said the schools are serving as "serious brainwashing centers." "American families should be very careful when sending their children to these schools," he added.
The consul general said Turkey expected that those affiliated with the group would be extradited to Turkey.
Turkey has so far requested the extradition of more than 100 FETÖ-linked suspects from 40 countries, including the U.S., following last year's coup attempt, according to Turkish government figures.
File for extradition of Gülen complete, justice minister says
The file for the extradition of Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) leader Fetullah Gülen from the U.S. to Turkey is complete, Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül said on Sunday.
"All processes have been completed according to international and extradition agreements, there are no deficiencies in technical terms or documents for the extradition," Gül said in response to journalists' questions at Parliament for the opening of the third legislative session.