Turkey Urges U.S. to Extradite Cleric Blamed for Organising Coup Attempt

The relations between Turkey and the United States will be “inevitably affected” if Washington fails to grant Ankara’s request to extradite a cleric suspected of orchestrating the failed coup attempt in Turkey, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier this week that Washington would have to choose between Ankara and the movement of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in exile in the U.S.

Turkey claims that Gulen is the mastermind of the abortive coup attempt on July 15 organized by his followers and his FETO group, to which Ankara refers as a terrorist organisation.

Gulen has denied the accusations.

"If the U.S. does not respond Turkey's extradition request for Gulen, who is head of the FETO organization and has been living in U.S., this will inevitably affect the bilateral relations of the two countries," Anadolu Agency quoted Cavusoglu as saying in an interview with Japanese news agency Kyodo on Saturday.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim stressed on Saturday that Ankara could not make any compromises with the United States over the request for the extradition of Gulen, according to Turkish media reports.

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