By Zafer Fatih Beyaz
ANKARA (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday filed legal papers against former Pentagon official Michael Rubin.
Lodged to the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s office by Erdogan’s lawyer Huseyin Aydin, the nine-page complaint letter accused Rubin -- an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) analyst -- of insulting the president.
The complaint, seen by Anadolu Agency, noted: "Rubin's illogical accusations and insulting tweets are not only a reflection of his hatred and anger towards President Erdogan but also against the Turkish Republic."
Rubin is accused of supporting and committing offenses for Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which is blamed by Turkish government for being behind the July 15 defeated coup that left 250 people dead and around 2,200 injured.
In his columns and tweets, Rubin accused the Turkish President of using the coup attempt "to purge society of political and ideological opponents."
“Support for Erdogan is in no way support for Islam and Turkish dignity. Backing Erdogan will be a support for corruption and collapse of Turkey,” he wrote in a tweet in Turkish language.
In another column on the AEI website, he said, "Erdogan has nobody to blame for the coup but himself," claiming the president’s foreign policy of “no problems with neighbors” has caused problems with "almost every neighbor."
In a story titled 'Extradite Gulen? Really?', Rubin wrote: "What’s going on isn’t about Gulen. It’s a power play [of Erdogan]."
U.S.-based FETO leader Fetullah Gulen is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrating the Turkish state, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming the so-called parallel state.
Gulen has been living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.