“But we need to meet legal standard requirement under our law”, adding that it would be an “impeachable offense” for President Obama to deliver Gulen without going through the USA justice system. We cannot make a distinction between good or bad terrorist organisations. “And so let’s move on”, said Biden, who is due to meet Erdogan later in the day. “We have no reason to shelter a strongman who would attack. and try to overthrow a democracy”. At that, Biden put his face in his hands.
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Erdogan and U.S. Vice President Biden held a press conference in Ankara. “Many members of the media are interviewing them”, Erdogan said.
The cleric, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, has denied any involvement in last month’s coup attempt that left more than 270 people dead.
After Biden’s remarks, Erdogan called the relationship with the U.S.
“This is devastating, can you imagine if this happened at home?”
“When you go into an American court you can not say “this is a bad guy”. Biden said to reporters.
Before the new conference, the vice president also toured the parliament building, badly damaged by air strikes during the coup attempt, with the Speaker of Parliament Ismail Kahraman and Biden noted the psychological impact the damage has on the public. Anti-American sentiment has been on the rise in Turkey since the coup.
“I can understand how some of your countrymen feel the world didn’t respond to their existential crisis rapidly enough or with the appropriate amount of solidarity and empathy”, Biden said following a two-and-a-half hour meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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. A team of Department of Justice investigators is in Turkey to further review evidence.
Yildirim said if the process of extraditing Gulen is expedited, Turkish people’s disappointment would be dispelled “very quickly”. The requests total more than 3,000 pages, Turkish officials said.
“We have no reason other than to cooperate with you (Turkey)”.
The U.S. has found itself vilified in the Turkish press recently, with several newspapers accusing the the CIA of being behind the episode, noting that Gulen’s application for permanent residency was supported by letters from former senior American intelligence officials.
He stressed that the US had no prior knowledge of Turkish coup and would never support treasonous behavior.
“I want to make it unmistakably clear that the United States stands with our ally, Turkey”, Biden said.
“I believe that the United States will take necessary steps that will meet Turkey’s rightful expectations on this issue”, he added. He said Turkish officials reassured him that the “rule of law” would be followed. “Remember the confusion after 9/11?” An additional 79,900 government workers had been suspended from the Interior and Education ministries, the military, police and judiciary. On Wednesday, Turkey’s top professional judicial body disbarred 2,847 judges and prosecutors over suspected ties to Gulen.
Biden is expected to avoid any public criticism of the arrest of thousands of Turkish citizens in the aftermath of the coup attempt.
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A Turkish army tank and an armoured vehicle are stationed near the border with Syria, in Karkamis, Turkey on Tuesday.
