Turkey Expects ‘Concrete Steps’ from U.S. on Cleric’s Return

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister is expressing impatience with the United States for not extraditing a cleric whom the Turkish government alleges masterminded a failed 2016 coup.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during Sunday that Turkey has demanded the return of 84 suspects from the U.S., including Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. The cleric lives in Pennsylvania and has denied orchestrating the coup attempt.

Speaking during a trip to Qatar, Cavusoglu says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed Gulen’s status on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina two weeks ago.

The minister said: “When we met in Buenos Aires, President Trump told Erdogan that they have been working on that, but we need to see concrete steps because it has been already more than 2 years.”