Turkey making ridiculous claims since the failed coup

Fox News:

As Turkey presses the Obama administration to hand over a Pennsylvania-based cleric, claiming he spearheaded last month’s coup attempt, the Muslim nation's media is pointing an accusatory finger at a respected American academic -- and in a bizarre twist, an infamous San Quentin death-row inmate convicted of killing his wife.

Once a key ally of the U.S., Turkey has become a hotbed of anti-American rhetoric, with government-controlled media openly accusing the CIA and other Americans of taking part in a plan to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The accusations have dominated headlines in newspapers in the wake of the plot, and have included such improbable claims as the involvement of California death row prisoner Scott Peterson.

“I am stating this very clearly: The United States of America planned to directly murder Turkey’s president and implemented this plan,” said Ibrahim Karagul, editor-in-chief of a largely circulated pro-Erdogan newspaper, Yeni Safak.

Turkey accuses Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers within Turkey’s government and military of fomenting the coup. Gulen and Erdogan, once friends and political allies, became sworn enemies after a 2013 corruption probe targeting Erdogan. Gulen, who operates a profitable chain of private schools in the U.S., vehemently denies involvement in the coup.

While Turkey presses on for the extradition of Gulen, U.S. officials say Ankara has offered neither evidence nor a formal extradition request.

Another widely circulated, pro-Erdogan newspaper, Aksam, used its front cover earlier this month to reveal purported details about the coup. It accused Henri Barkey, a respected Lehigh University professor, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center and renowned expert on Turkey, of having gathered a group of 16 people on an island called Buyukada, near Istanbul, on the day of the coup “to hold a top secret meeting.”

“According to intelligence sources,” the article stated, “Fethullah Gulen sympathizer Henri Barkey was going to get immediately involved, support the coup plotters, and run a biased broadcast on the coup.”

Barkey told FoxNews.com the allegations were “ridiculous,” but acknowledged holding the gathering – to discuss the state of Iran. He said the meeting was planned more than six months in advance.

“It is ridiculous, of course,” Barkey said. “There’s a conspiracy culture in Turkey that has taken over. I was taken aback, but you are dealing with journalists who are not journalists. They are hacks.
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The claim that Peterson, who is on death row in San Quentin State Prison in California for the 2001 murder of his wife, was at the island gathering and has been assigned by the CIA to carry out assassinations in Turkey, underscores the bizarre nature of the media accusations.
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The Turkish leadership appears to have lost its composure and its mind since the failed coup.  The current government of Turkey is living in a fantasyland of paranoia and plots.  They have become a danger to themselves and those associated with them.  Before the coup, Erdogan had made Turkey into a lousy ally.  Now they are not even competent enough to be lousy.  Since