"Turkey wants a terrorist to be extradited to it from the US. Why is revoking a green card of a terrorist so hard?" says Turkish President, harshly criticizing US which block extradition process of FETÖ leader
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has harshly criticized the United States for proving troublesome in the extradition process of Fetullah Gülen, the leader of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) which Turkey says is responsible for the bloody coup bid of July 15.
"I want to retrieve a terrorist, a terrorist who was recorded in the strategic document of Turkey's National Security Council. But you (U.S. officials) are still resisting by not extraditing the terrorist," said Erdoğan, addressing United States' officials during his speech in a dinner organized by the Turkish-American community in the U.S.
"They are still talking about subpoenaing the terrorists. What is the purpose of subpoenaing a terrorist to court? Why is revoking a green card of a terrorist that hard while denationalizing people is easy? We are expecting strong will from you against the FETÖ terrorist organization and prevent this terrorist group's activities against our country," he said. "If Turkey's requests are met, then Turkey would implement its B or C plans," he added.
Turkey's Erdoğan said Ankara has been putting all its efforts into being able to show the real face of the FETÖ to the world's nations by conducting 7,150 discussions with many parties all around the world.
"As many as 54 of the total meetings were conducted on the presidency level, 71 on the prime ministry level and 410 on the ministerial level. We have made more than 2,000 statements to the press and expressed the situation that Turkey has been though with more than 500 articles via media," he said.
"While we are making all these efforts, it's a shame to witness that the U.S. still stoops to talk with the terrorist group," he said.
Erdoğan, who also touched upon Turkey's fight against the terrorist groups in Syria, said Turkey will never let a terror corridor be formed in Syria.
"We will never let a formation of a terror corridor happen for the sake of our Turkmen, Arab and Kurdish siblings in Syria. But unfortunately we cannot agree on this issue with our American allies," he said.
"We are certain that the fate of Syria should be determined by the Syrians, not the terrorist groups," Erdoğan said.
Turkish President also criticized the 65 countries that compose the anti-Daesh coalition. "Why can't 65 countries deal with a terrorist group consisting of only around 10,000 terrorists? If we were determined enough, then this terrorist group wouldn't be able to continue its activities. Probably, not all the countries but only Turkey and the U.S. would have been strong enough to fight Daesh, if we could reach a consensus in the issue," Erdoğan said.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also said that the Bashar al-Assad regime of Syria was behind the attack on a U.N. aid convoy that shattered a fragile cease-fire. "The killer responsible for that attack is Assad's regime itself," he said.
An aid convoy carrying humanitarian relief was targeted by warplanes earlier this week in Aleppo.
The Red Cross said at least 20 people were killed in the attack on trucks carrying humanitarian relief to thousands of Syrians.
The incident was the most serious challenge to the week-old Syrian cease-fire and came just hours after the Syrian government declared the agreement had expired.
