Turkey to end extraditions to US unless cleric is turned over, Erdogan says
Turkey will not extradite any suspects to the United States if Washington does not hand over the cleric Ankara blames for orchestrating a failed 2016 military coup, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.
Ankara accuses US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the putsch and has repeatedly asked Washington for his extradition. US officials have said courts require sufficient evidence to extradite the elderly cleric who has denied any involvement in the coup.
"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 told local administrators at a conference in his presidential palace in Ankara.
"If you're not giving him (Gulen) to us, then excuse us, but from now on whenever you ask us for another terrorist, as long as I am in office, you will not get them," he said.
