Biden sought to assuage concerns that the USA was shielding Gulen.
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During closed-door conversations, Biden raised concerns about Turkey’s response to the coup, which the Turkish government is claiming was orchestrated by Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania.
More than 270 people died during the failed coup attempt. Gulen denies Turkish charges he was behind the coup bid.
U.S. vice president Joe Biden said Wednesday during a visit to Ankara that though he understood “the intense feeling your government and the people of Turkey have about” the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, but that only a court could extradite anyone.
Biden stressed that it would be an impeachable offence for US President Barack Obama to order the extradition of a foreign national, but that work was continuing by US and Turkish legal experts to evaluate the evidence produced by Turkey.
Biden said after meeting Erdogan that those involved in the coup attempt were terrorists and said the USA had more lawyers working on the request for Gulen’s extradition than in any other such recent case.
He added that Syrian Kurdish forces will lose the USA support if they do not retreat to east of Euphrates.
“As per the extradition agreement between the USA and Turkey, these types of people should at least be detained, arrested and kept under surveillance”, Erdogan said.
Biden said Syria must be whole and united, and not carved into pieces.
Biden says he understands the “intense feeling” that the people of Turkey and their government have about Gulen.
Biden is the first senior White House official to meet with Erdogan and other top member of the Turkish government after the failed July 15 coup.
He stressed that the USA had no prior knowledge of Turkish coup and would never support treasonous behavior.
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He said the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and People’s Protection Units (YPG), which are considered off-shoot of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), should not spread west of Euphrates, and Turkey and the U.S are on the same page regarding this issue. “Can you imagine what the American public would be saying or doing?”
