US President Barack Obama yesterday pledged US assistance to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the investigation into last week’s attempted coup, the White House said.
During a phone call, Obama “strongly condemned” the violent uprising and “urged that the investigations and prosecution of the coup’s perpetrators be conducted in ways that reinforce public confidence in democratic institutions and the rule of law”, it said in a statement.
Obama “lauded the Turkish people’s resolve against this violent intervention and their commitment to democracy”, the White House said.
“President Obama made clear that the United States is willing to provide appropriate assistance to Turkish authorities investigating the attempted coup.”
Turkey has launched a massive post-coup purge. Thousands have been detained.
The statement did not say whether Obama discussed with Erdogan Turkey’s request to extradite US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the Turkish government alleges was linked to the coup attempt.
Turkish authorities earlier yesterday scrapped all TV and radio station licences linked to the “Fethullah Terrorist Organisation”, the government’s derogatory name for the Gulen movement.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said later that the Turkish government had filed material in electronic form about Gulen with the US government.
Any extradition request from Turkey, once submitted, would be evaluated under the terms of a treaty between the two countries, Earnest said.
The US State Department said it was still in the process of analysing the documents submitted by Turkey and could not characterise them as an extradition request for Gulen.
Earlier, Turkey’s justice ministry it had sent a dossier to the United States on Gulen, but did not make clear whether that amounted to an official extradition request.
A request to extradite Gulen would face legal and political hurdles in the United States.
Lawyers at the State and Justice departments would review it to determine if the alleged offence is a crime in both countries and whether it falls within the scope of the countries’ extradition treaty.
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