Turkey will strip 130 people of their citizenship unless they return to the country to face criminal charges, the authorities say.
Those on the wanted list include Fethullah Gulen, the leader of the Islamic network accused of directing last summer’s failed coup, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999.
All 130 have been given three months to return, according to Turkey’s official gazette. It says that they are accused of terrorist offences and crimes against the constitutional order.
Suspects can be held for up to 40 days without charge and the justice system is so overwhelmed by the number of people detained on coup-related charges — now more than 50,000 — that anyone arrested can expect to spend months or years behind bars before their case is heard.
“Currently we are de facto stateless, we cannot go to our country,” one purged expatriate said. They have not yet been threatened with revocation of their citizenship, but said they were expecting the order to be issued.
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“We can’t ask our families to come to us because they will arrest them on the allegation that they are escaping,” he said. “Our bank accounts are frozen and we cannot sell our estate or assets. All in all, we are already not citizens.”