Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the US authorities of acting insincerely due to Washington’s reluctance to extradite Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, which is considered by Ankara as the main person behind the 2016 coup attempt.
"Unfortunately, the United States is still acting insincerely", Erdogan told the A Haber broadcaster, expressing his regret over "Washington’s unconstructive position" concerning the extradition of Gulen.
After the failed coup, which occurred in mid-2016, Ankara detained thousands of journalists, diplomats, judges, members of the military and human rights activists, accusing them of having a role in the attempted government overthrow and having links with Gulen. The cleric, living in self-imposed exile in the United States, said he was not involved.
The Turkish authorities have repeatedly sent extradition files to Washington which has denied to hand over Gulen, who has been residing in the United States since 1999.
In December, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that during the G20 summit in Argentina, US President Donald Trump told Erdogan that the US authorities were working on Gulen’s extradition. However, the White House subsequently argued that Washington had not agreed to extradite the cleric during the high-level conversation.
According to Anakara, the movement of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, which Turkish authorities refer to as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), played a key role in the military takeover attempt in 2016.
