Fethullah Gulen

A bank in Kosovo has suspended a number of private bank accounts linked to alleged members of the network of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, according to local Kosovan media reports cited by Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke with Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim who called to express his condolences and those of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the death of the Greek fighter jet pilot whose plane crashed into the sea in the central Aegean earlier on Thursday.

The Assembly of Kosovo on Wednesday adopted a resolution proposed by the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, based on which it will establish a committee to investigate the highly controversial deportation of six Turkish nationals on March 29.

Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish preacher who has lived in voluntary exile in the US since 1999, on Tuesday criticized the deportation of six Turkish citizens from Kosovo to Turkey in an operation conducted by Turkish state intelligence, likening it to a hijacking. 

The United States is awaiting evidence from Turkey over U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen's alleged links to the 2016 assassination of Russian Ambassador to Ankara Andrei Karlov, and will consider an extradition request accordingly, Justice Department spokesperson Nicole Navas Oxman has said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday again accused Kosovo's Prime Minister of "protecting terrorists" in the row over the rapid deportation of six Turks from Kosovo to Turkey.

He again criticized Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj for firing the Kosovo Interior Minister and the head of the intelligence service for not informing him about the operation.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blasted Kosovo's prime minister on March 31 for criticizing the secret deportations of six Turkish men who Ankara claims are terrorists with links to the now-outlawed network of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.

A prosecutor in the Central Anatolian province of Konya issued arrest warrants for 70 people over suspected links to the movement of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen on March 29. 

A German company is interested in buying two real estate developers that were seized by a Turkish state fund over their alleged ties to the movement of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, according to the head of the fund.

There is an interesting backstory to the relationship between Amnesty International and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Twenty years ago, the man who is now Turkey's president was at the beginning of his political career as Istanbul's new and ambitious mayor, when he was imprisoned by the secular authorities for publicly reciting a religious call-to-arms.