Khashoggi update: US seeks to deport exiled arch-enemy of Turkey’s Erdogan

A report provided to NBC News by its own exclusive sources reveals that the Trump administration is actively seeking out ways by which it can legally deport exiled Turkish opposition figure Fethullah Gulen from the US. The move being undertaken as a possible way to ease Turkish pressure on Saudi Arabia over the Jamal Khashoggi killing.

The report by NBC claims that the news group was contacted by “two senior U.S. officials and two other people briefed on the requests [to deport Fethullah Gulen].”

The Turkish opposition figure has an arch-enemy status in relation to Turkish President Tayyip Recap Erdogan who is convinced that Gulen leads a clandestine conspiracy against him and his AKP party.

Erdogan’s suspicion extends as far as him officially blaming the the 2016 coup attempt against the AKP’s rule on Gulen.

Outside of Turkey itself, Erdogan has dispatched Turkish foreign intelligence authorities as far as central Africa in order to hunt down and arrest so-called Gulen conspirators.

Washington is undertaking the move to have Gulen deported as a possible means of convincing Turkey to ease pressure on Saudi Arabia in regards to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi which Erdogan has effectively blamed on the Saudi establishment.

Although not mentioned in the NBC report, it is likely that the Trump administration’s attempt to placate Erdogan through Gulen’s expulsion might also be linked to Turkish threats and preliminary moves towards launching a major offensive against US-backed Kurdish forces in northeast Syria.