United States officials have said that so far Turkey has not supplied any evidence that Gulen was involved in the coup and only filed documents on alleged crimes unrelated to the failed putsch.
Advertisement
Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have repeatedly called on the U.S.to swiftly extradite Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania in self-imposed exile. “That’s why I wanted to be personally here and was asked by the President to personally represent him to tell you and your colleagues and countrymen how very, very sorry I am” about what the nation experienced.
Biden’s primary objective in Ankara is to convince the Turkish people that the USA remains committed to the alliance and fully condemns the coup attempt, said the second official, who briefed reporters Wednesday.
Biden sought to assuage concerns that the US was shielding Gulen.
“Our legal experts are working right now with their Turkish counterparts on the production of and the evaluation of material and evidence that needs to be supplied to an American court to meet the requirements under our law in the extradition treaty to extradite Gulen”.
Turkish officials shared information about four different files dealing with the extradition of Gulen, who is also accused of leading a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
Biden also rejected suggestions that the USA government knew about plans for a coup in advance. “We have no, no, no interest whatsoever in protecting anyone who has done harm to an ally, none”. He said the aim is to create a “terror-free zone” in northern Syria to prevent militants from entering Turkey.
“The United States of America did not have any fore-knowledge of what befell you on the 15th of July”, he said. The vice president is sensitive to the fact that the coup attempt was traumatic for the Turkish people and that sharp public criticism of its reaction could play poorly, the US official said. Its failure to do so – and the perception of a slow response to the coup from Western allies – has angered Erdogan and chilled relations with Washington and the European Union.
“Remember the confusion after 9/11”, Biden said. “Can you imagine what the American public would be saying?”
Earlier, Biden toured the sections of parliament damaged during the coup attempt. On Wednesday, Turkey’s top professional judicial body disbarred 2,847 judges and prosecutors over suspected ties to Gulen.
Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria was also meant to contain an expansion by Syria’s Kurds amid the neighboring country’s civil war, now in its sixth year.
Advertisement
Biden’s visit was almost overshadowed by Turkey’s new offensive on its border with Syria as it pursued Islamic State extremists.
