Even as Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Ankara to promise American cooperation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the USA has “no excuse” to refuse Fethullah Gulen’s extradition, and his Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim, was issuing veiled threats about anti-American sentiment growing in Turkey if Gulen is not handed over. Ankara is anxious the YPG’s advance emboldens Kurdish insurgents in its mainly Kurdish southeast.
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“We have no, no, no interest whatsoever in protecting anyone who has done harm to an ally, none”.
“According to the 1981 extradition treaty with the U.S., we’d expect Gulen to be detained, however, he still roams freely”, Erdogan said during a joint press conference with the visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
Biden added it’s “hard for Americans to picture the possibility” of the military trying to overthrow the USA government “when they thought the president was on vacation with his family”.
He also says the U.S. would also not accept a Kurdish entity on the Turkish border.
Turkey has demanded that he be placed in provisional detention and returned to Turkey to face charges, but Washington insists that any evidence be brought before a USA court under normal extradition proceedings.
The department has confirmed that it has been working through those documents, but Toner could not say whether at the time the documents amounted to an extradition request.
Turkey’s government has said the defeated coup, which left 240 people martyred and almost 2,200 injured, was organized by followers of Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US state of Pennsylvania since 1999 and his FETO network.
Toner added that the extradition request was not related to the 15 July attempted coup, but was for other issues for which Gulen was being sought by authorities in Ankara.
Biden said he had addressed the issues in his meetings with Turkish leaders Wednesday.
He was speaking in relation to Turkey’s request to extradite the wealthy Gulen, accused of being behind a failed coup attempt on July 15 in Turkey.
The U.S. official also condemned Saturday’s wedding attack in Gaziantep that killed at least 54 people, including 29 children, and the PKK attacks in southeastern Turkey.
“I want to make it unmistakably clear that the United States stands with our ally, Turkey”, Biden said.
Turkey’s prime minister again called on the U.S.to speed up the process in the Gulen case.
An Istanbul court ordered on August 4 to arrest Fethullah Gulen.
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Even if Washington, Moscow, and Ankara seem aligned over prioritizing the war against IS over opposition to Assad – for the first time in many years – US-Turkish relations are still tainted by US cooperation with Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Turkey considers a terrorist group. This week, Turkey recalled hundreds of diplomats alleged to have links to the coup.
