Vice President Biden told Turkish officials in Ankara Wednesday that it would be “an impeachable offense” for President Obama to turn over a cult leader living in Pennsylvania who Turkey suspects is behind the attempted coup last month.
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Biden arrived in Ankara just hours after Turkish forces, supported by USA air strikes, launched a military offensive against Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Syria.
The State Department continues to say that case should be handled by USA courts and that responsibility for the dispute falls to the Turks to produce evidence of Gulen’s complicity.
Trudeau was also asked whether the extradition treaty signed in 1979 between Ankara and Washington banned US -based Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) leader Fetullah Gulen from leaving the USA following Turkey’s extradition request.
U.S Vice President Joe Biden, left, speaks to the media after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016. Toner didn’t go on to say what Turkey cited, instead, as grounds to extradite him.
Biden will look to show support with Turkey, while raising concern about the extent of the crackdown, USA officials told Reuters. It has even accused him of running a “parallel state” in Turkey.
Speaking during a visit to Ankara, Biden said the United States would continue to cooperate as Turkey brings forward additional information about cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt. “Yet that individual is still directing his terrorist organization from his whereabouts”. “We have no, no, no, no interest whatsoever in protecting anyone who has done harm to an ally, but we need to meet legal standard requirement under our law”. Turkey and the US are party to a 1979 extradition treaty.
“Turkey will never accept a new Kurdish entity on the other side of its southern borders”.
United States and Turkish officials have met ahead of the visit by Vice-President Joe Biden to Ankara on Wednesday (24 August) where he will attempt to patch up relations between the two countries.
“Clearly President Erdogan is sending a message by getting closer to Russian Federation and Iran that he’s unhappy with the attitude of the West”, said Bulent Aliriza, a Turkey analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“We have received a formal extradition request, just not one pertaining to the coup attempt”, said Toner, who did not offer further details on the dossier submitted by Ankara.
Washington’s concerns about human rights and democracy in Turkey have intensified since the Turkish government detained or fired tens of thousands of police, soldiers, teachers and journalists following the abortive coup.
Biden also commented on the ongoing Turkish military operation into Syria, telling Syrian Kurdish forces they “must move back across the Euphrates River” if they hope to continue to receive US support.
Within Turkey, Erdogan has launched a massive crackdown on judges, teachers and journalists whom the West sees as unlikely to have joined with the military officers behind the plot.
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He will also visit parts of the Turkish parliament buildings that were hit by bomb attacks during last month’s coup attempt.
