Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who is due to meet Biden later, earlier said Turkey would continue to provide USA officials with documents to demand the extradition of Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999.
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“I’m saddened by the unconscionable attack in an attempt to take down Turkish democracy”, Biden said in a joint press conference with Yildirim. After Biden’s remarks, Erdogan called Turkey’s relationship with the USA a “model partnership”.
He said it would be an impeachable offence for US President Barack Obama to order the extradition of a foreign national.
The operation started at 4 a.m., officials said, with Turkish and USA warplanes pounding Islamic State positions in Jarablus.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that the operation in Jarablus was aimed at stopping the threats posed by Daesh, as well as Kurdish militants in Syria, which Ankara considers to be linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) branded a terrorists organization in Turkey.
Although U.S. warplanes joined the Turkish forces in Jarablus, the operation masked severe tensions between the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies over Syria. Gulen denies Turkish charges he was behind the coup bid.
The Turkish government has been accused of using the coup to curtail dissent.
For his part, Erdogan said Gulen’s extradition “as soon as possible” was Turkey’s biggest priority.
“This heinous coup attempt was in our opinion orchestrated and instructed by Fethullah Gulen”, Yıldırım said Wednesday.
A USA delegation began meetings with Turkish counterparts on Tuesday to discuss the Gulen network’s activities.
“We have no, no, no, no interest whatsoever in protecting anyone who has done harm to an ally”, Biden said.
Biden pointed to the close cooperation with the Turkish authorities in this regard, but stressed: “We need to meet the legal standard requirement under our law”.
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“We believe the Turkish border must be controlled by Turkey only, there should be no occupation by other group”, Biden 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.
