HALIFAX — A senior Turkish politician attending the Halifax International Security Forum says Donald Trump's election could spell trouble for relations with Canada if a U.S.-based Muslim dissident his country wants extradited seeks refuge north of the border.
There's been speculation in the American media that the new administration's friendly attitude towards the Tayyip Erdogan regime could lead the U.S. to extradite Fethullah Gulen to his native Turkey before the cleric can seek asylum in Canada or another country.
Omar Celik, the minister in charge of Turkey's negotiations with the European Union, said granting Gulen refugee status would be akin to providing a safe haven to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Retired Lt.-Gen. Michael Flynn, tapped by Trump as his national security adviser, penned an op-ed for Washington-based newspaper The Hill on Nov. 8 saying that allowing Gulen to remain in the United States would be like harbouring "Turkey's equivalent of Osama bin Laden."
Aided by a translator, Celik said Flynn's assessment of Gulen was "100 per cent right."
Turkish officials have implicated Gulen as the mastermind behind a failed coup that led to 270 deaths in July — an accusation the self-exiled cleric has denied.
A report in Hurriyet, a Turkish newspaper, last month said Gulen is considering escaping to another country in the event that the United States tries to extradite him and that Canada was one of the countries under consideration.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada could not be reached for comment on Saturday.
Celik said Davud Hamid, a dual Turkish-Canadian citizen who was arrested in the coup attempt, will have to wait for his prosecution to conclude before the imam can return to his family in Calgary.
