NEW YORK (AA) – Turkish and American officials are cooperating on Fetullah Gulen's extradition from the U.S., Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Tuesday.
"We have good improvements. We have a bilateral commission between Turkey and the U.S. judiciary officials. They are working on the files,” Kurtulmus said during a live interview on CNN's New Day program in New York.
The deputy prime minister noted Turkey had clear evidence of Gulen’s strong links to the July 15 coup attempt.
Asked if Turkey believes the U.S. was involved in the overthrow attempt, Kurtulmus was dismissive. "No, no. It is Fetullah Gulen," has said as he explained what Ankara wants from Washington.
"Our expectation from the U.S. government is either to extradite or detain him. We have sent so many evidences to the U.S. officials, so it is now in the hands of the U.S. judiciary system," he said.
The satiation in Syrian was also discussed, as Kurtulmus stressed that Turkey continues to handle millions of refugees from the war-torn country.
Turkey has so far accepted more than 3 million refugees from Syria since March 2011, which he said was equivalent to the total number of refugees the U.S. has accepted during the last 50 years.
"So, it is really a huge burden of Turkey,” he said. “We already spent more than $15 billion on the refugees … without having a solution for Syrian peace, we cannot stop Syrian refugees from coming to Turkey and coming to European continent."