“We will abide by our system”.
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“Remember the confusion after 9/11”, Biden said. Turkey accuses Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric in self-exile in Pennsylvania, of leading the coup plot.
Biden and Yildirim both said they did not accept a new Kurdish entity on Turkey’s border inside Syria.
“It will annoy Ankara if Washington refuses to extradite him”, he noted, explaining this is why Biden said he wished Gulen was not in the US. “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”.
President Erdogan has received an apology from U.S. vice president for not visiting Turkey earlier after the failed coup attempt.
“A third issue concerns the use of the Incirlik airbase which is “… controlled by the Turkish and U.S. air forces”, according to Abet, and which should be addressed while Biden is in Turkey. “How long it will take will depend on what evidence is presented”.
Turkey’s aversion to the YPG has always been a source of tension with the USA and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members, who consider Syria’s Kurds their most reliable ally in the fight against Isil.
Biden arrived in Ankara just hours after Turkish forces, supported by US air strikes, launched a military offensive against Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Syria. But he reaffirmed the USA willingness to cooperate in the case of the US -based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen. Gulen denies any involvement.
“We did not have any fore-knowledge”, he said. But Yildirim said he wants the extradition proceedings to be conducted without delay.
Turkey’s incursion into Syria reflects a shift away from its insistence that President Bashar al-Assad be removed from power in any settlement there and may start to close the gap between the worldwide coalitions that have helped keep the country’s civil war raging, analysts and diplomats say.
Americans understood the feelings of the Turkish people in the wake of the attempted coup, which resulted in at least 240 deaths, Biden said but warned that President Barack Obama did not have the power to extradite anyone.
Biden also dismissed speculation inside Turkey that the United States wanted to protect Gulen. “We’ve seen that borne out each time we stand together to face down threats to our shared security and common values”.
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.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Biden said the USA would continue to cooperate as Turkey brings forward additional information about Gulen who is accused of orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt.
Biden reassured the nation that the US did not have prior knowledge of the failed coup attempt last month that Turkish leaders claim was orchestrated by a cleric in Pennsylvania.
Still, the Department of Justice has more lawyers handling the requests than any recent extradition case, according to the official. The White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, was asked during a news briefing happening at the same time if that remark meant the US believes Gulen played a role in the coup.
Turkey would not have launched “Operation Euphrates Shield” on Wednesday without a green light from Russian Federation, he said. The effort has raised significant human rights concerns.
Biden reiterated Wednesday that when the operation to retake Jarabulus was complete, the YPG must return to the east of the Euphrates and not form an area of autonomous control. “You have to say “this is a guy or a woman who committed the following explicit crime” he added.
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“Let’s give them some time”.
