He also said that Turkey’s request for the extradition of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Erdogan for the deadly unrest, would be handled in accordance with U.S. law and that “evidence” against Gulen would be taken seriously.
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U.S. president Barack Obama on Friday flatly rejected reports that the United States had prior intelligence about or was involved in last week’s coup attempt in Turkey, calling such suggestions “unequivocally false”.
“We can’t discount how scared and shaken not just the Turkish government is, but Turkish society is”, Obama said, but cautioned against an “over-reaction that could in some fashion lead to a curtailment of civil liberties”.
In a news conference at the White House with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Obama said he condemned the coup attempt and that the United States supports Turkey’s democratically elected government.
“What is true is that President Erdogan and Turkey have a strong belief that Gulen – who is in Pennsylvania, a legal resident of the United States, is somehow behind some of these efforts”. And Kilic would not say whether he thought the United States was.
Erdogan accuses Gulen, a charismatic former ally, of masterminding the plot against him.
“We deplore the attempted coup”, the American president added.
President Barack Obama said Friday that the USA government rejects any attempt to overthrow the government in Turkey.
In the putsch’s aftermath 9,251 people have been arrested, including 114 police officers, 6,164 soldiers, 823 judges and prosecutors and 2,150 civilians and other civil servants across Turkey. An extradition request would then receive the review required by the Justice Department and other government agencies just like any other petition. “We’ve got to go through a legal process”.
The United States rejects any military plan to take over the country, Obama said.
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Materials related to the extradition of the cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, have been submitted to USA authorities.
