...Eric Edelman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2003 to 2005, told me that when he served at the embassy, he never heard from Erdogan's government any complaints about Gulen's status as an asylum seeker in the U.S. "In those days they were thick as thieves," he said.
Edelman did say however that when he met with followers of Gulen, they would usually warn of coup plotters inside the military. "This doesn't mean they were not behind this coup, but we ought to have evidence before we extradite him," he said.
Erdogan's relationship with Gulen soured in late 2013. That was when a federal prosecutor opened a case against four ministers in Erdogan's government over a huge corruption scandal. Erdogan and his supporters accused the prosecutor, Zekeriya Oz, of being a part of Gulen's shadow government inside the Turkish state. The corruption scandal was seen as a declaration of political war...