Erdogan: No extradition to US until Turkey gets Gulen
Turkey has announced it will suspend extraditions to the United States until Washington produces Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen as US-Turkish relations continue to circle the drain.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Turkey will not extradite any more suspects to the United States until Washington hands over the Muslim preacher who is accused of masterminding the failed 2016 military coup.
The ultimatum, delivered today during a meeting of administrators at the presidential palace in Ankara, is a further sign of the meltdown between the two NATO allies.
Erdogan said, “We have given the United States 12 terrorists so far, but they have not given us back the one we want. They made up excuses from thin air.” Erdogan was referring to Fethullah Gulen, the secretive Sunni cleric who has been living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999 and is a permanent resident of the United States.
Erdogan warned, “If you’re not giving him to us, then sorry, but from now on whenever you ask us for another terrorist, for as long as I hold office, you will not get them.” If Erdogan sticks to his threat he will effectively scotch a 1979 treaty between the United States and Turkey on extradition and mutual assistance in criminal matters that has been in force since 1981.
