As the news broke late Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is looking to extradite Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) leader Fetullah Gülen to Turkey, the dollar slipped against the lira by 2.12 percent.
With the sudden decrease in the currency's value, the exchange rate fell to 5.3306.
Falling oil prices have also affected the Turkish lira in a positive way, and the euro has plummeted, trading at 6.06 lira.
The Trump administration has asked several federal agencies to find legal means to extradite Gülen to Turkey, NBC News reported earlier Thursday.
Administration officials asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to reopen Turkey's case on the self-exiled cleric and work toward extradition, the U.S. news outlet said, citing two U.S. officials and two other sources.
Gülen, who arrived in the United States in 1999, currently resides in a luxurious retreat in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. He was already facing criminal investigations related to his group when the coup attempt that took place in 2016. Turkey pressed the U.S. for his extradition after the coup attempt, sending hundreds of folders full of evidence implicating Gülen and FETÖ in the coup attempt. The United States, where the terrorist group runs a network of charter schools, is a favorite safe haven for fugitive FETÖ members. Turkey says the U.S. has turned the extradition matter into a political issue rather than handling the case as a legal matter.
