On a one-day visit to Ankara, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told a news conference that the United States has “no interest in protecting anyone who has done harm to an ally”.
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He described the coup attempt, which involved military strikes on the Turkish parliament building, as an attack against the heart of democracy, adding that the U.S. is impressed by the popular resistance shown to the coup perpetrators.
Meeting with Erdogan and Turkey’s prime minister in Ankara on Wednesday, Biden delivered a message of alliance and conciliation.
An Associated Press YouTube video shows some of the situation as Vice President Biden spoke to interested parties in Turkey.
From the minute he stepped off the plane on Wednesday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to Turkey seemed ill-fated.
European officials have in the past often chided Erdogan for what his opponents say is creeping authoritarianism and an intolerance of dissent, including the jailing of critical journalists – charges denied by the Turkish leader. If there are direct clashes, the US would be forced to take sides, he said, and Washington would likely side with its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, whose air base is used to launch coalition airstrikes against the extremists in Syria and Iraq.
He says USA legal experts are working with Turkish officials to gather and evaluate the evidence that would have to be supplied to US courts in order to win the extradition of Gulen to Turkey. “But the entire area around Jarabulus must be freed of the Syrian Kurds’ self-defense forces”, Yildirim said on Haberturk TV on Wednesday.
Turkey’s prime minister again called on the U.S.to speed up the process in the Gulen case.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who is due to meet Biden later, earlier said Turkey would continue to provide U.S. officials with documents to demand the extradition of Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999.
-Turkish alliance is a concern for the United States, which is counting on support from Turkey – which has NATO’s second-biggest military – in the battle against Islamic State.
Former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, Admiral James Stavridis, said the key to USA ties with Turkey was balancing realist and idealist tensions, between the need for a strong, regional NATO ally and drawing attention to human rights.
His frustration showed through as he tried to explain the US justice system and the Constitution’s separation of powers to his Turkish audience.
During the visit, Biden addressed Turkish complaints that allies had not displayed strong solidarity with Turkey’s elected leadership against the coup and apologized for not having arrived earlier. “You have to say “this is a guy or a woman who committed the following explicit crime” he added.
Biden scored a minor diplomatic win when Prime Minister Binali Yildirim appeared to bolster the vice president’s emphatic proclamation the US had no prior knowledge or role in the coup attempt.
“The US administration, President Obama and Mr”.
“The US contends that that “… since there are no other ground forces they can rely on in the fight against ISIL, they will continue to train and back the YPG”, writes Abet, which is a “frustration” to Turkey.
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“How long it will take will depend on how much evidence is able to be presented”.
