USA vice-president Joe Biden said Wednesday that the U.S. is cooperating with Turkey in evaluating evidence against Muslim teacher Fethullah Gulen.
Advertisement
The Turks have submitted four extradition requests for Gulen, but all of them were related to allegations of criminal behavior that predated the coup attempt, said a senior administration official who briefed the press traveling with Biden. While the comments were received positively from Yildirim, they immediately stoked anger among US -backed Kurdish allies in the region.
At the press conference, Erdogan also confirmed the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Syria’s opposition forces, has forced the militants in Jarablus of northern Syria out with the help of Turkish forces and the US -led coalition forces.
But the fact that the man who Turkey wants extradited, Gulen, has been living in a “self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania for 17 years”, seems problematic, even though Gulen has “told VOA’s Turkish Service he was not involved in the coup and condemned the violence”, per the VOA report.
Erdogan said Turkey and the United States are strategic partners and keeping Gulen would not benefit the United States.
Turkey’s prime minister again called on the U.S.to speed up the process in the Gulen case.
Biden said that the prime minister, the foreign minister and others had made it clear they would adhere to constitutional principles and that the rule of law would prevail.
Turkish authorities are trying to get the United States to extradite a cleric who’s accused of masterminding last month’s failed military coup.
“What I think he’s alluding to is the fact that this issue has created some tension in the relationship between United States and Turkey, and it’s not tension that is going to be quickly resolved”, he said.
Earlier, Biden toured the sections of parliament damaged during the coup attempt.
Gulen has lived in self-exile on a compound in the northeastern US state of Pennsylvania since 1999 and has denied any involvement in the attempt to overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The treaty says extradition may be refused if the crime is regarded to be of a “political character or an offense connected with such an offense”.
He last visited Turkey in January and is the only U.S. official to have built a closer personal relationship with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
He also expressed astonishment at speculation inside Turkey that the United States wanted to protect Gulen.
“This heinous coup attempt was in our opinion orchestrated and instructed by Fethullah Gulen”, Yıldırım said Wednesday.
Advertisement
As Rudaw explains, Turkey has drawn a proverbial line in the sand around the town of Jarabulus, now held by the Islamic State, but soon to be attacked by Free Syrian Army forces supported by Ankara.
