Reuters, Istanbul :Outcry As Bulgaria Deports Fethullah Gulen Supporter To TurkeyTurkish authorities have detained a total of 35,022 people in relation to last month’s abortive coup attempt, a senior Turkish official said on Thursday.Just over half of those detained, or 17,740 people, have since been formally arrested, the official said. A further 11,597 people have been released while 5,685 remain in custody, the official said.Three Turkish military attaches, two at the Turkish embassy in Greece and one in Bosnia, are missing after being called back to Ankara as part of investigations into a failed military coup, a senior Turkish official told Reuters today.”We know the two military attaches in Greece tried to go abroad. The intelligence we received suggests they may have gone to Italy … If this is confirmed, we will let the Italian authorities know,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.The whereabouts of the attache in Bosnia was unknown, the official said. A total of 160 members of the military wanted in connection with the July 15 failed coup are still at large, including nine generals, the official added.Meanwhile, outcry As Bulgaria Deports Fethullah Gulen Supporter To Turkey World | Agence France-Presse Sofia, Bulgaria: Bulgaria’s deportation to Turkey of a supporter of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for last month’s failed coup, sparked an outcry in the EU member state today.Businessman Abdullah Buyuk, 43, was deported on Wednesday “as a person with invalid documents” after being refused political asylum, Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova told bTV television today.This sparked outrage in the news media and on social media, with critics charging that Sofia had bowed to Turkish pressure and had failed to follow proper legal or transparent procedures. “It is disgusting that the Bulgarian leadership bends in such a humiliating way for the country and for every free citizen,” former justice minister Hristo Ivanov said on Facebook.The chairman of rights group the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Krasimir Kanev, told AFP that the expulsion was “illegal”. Bulgarian media have dug around Buyuk’s case for weeks after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said several times that Ankara wants Buyuk transferred back as “a traitor”.He arrived in Bulgaria in February long before the coup and Turkey had already sought his extradition, accusing him of “!links with terrorist organisations and money laundering”.ADVERTISEMENTxIn March, two Bulgarian courts however refused to send him back, saying he was “sought for political reasons” and that they “lacked guarantees for a fair trial” in Turkey.Prosecutors told AFP last week however that after the July 15 coup attempt, Turkey asked Bulgaria to reexamine the case. They replied that the request was “procedurally inadmissible”.But interior ministry deputy chief of staff Georgy Arabadzhiev told journalists on Thursday that Bulgaria had now received from Interpol “new worrying facts and circumstances” about Buyuk, without elaborating.As a result, the ministry issued on Tuesday an order to expel him immediately, tracked him down and escorted him to the border.
