Spotlight: Turkey-U.S. ties in peril over post-coup cleric extradition standoff

Turkey has been pressing hard on the U.S. to hand over an exiled Turkish cleric for his alleged role in the failed coup plot that roiled the country ten days ago, further straining the soured ties between the two allies.

Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin fired the latest salvo of harsh demands on Monday by writing in The New York Times to present "testimony and evidence" obtained from coup plotters that are pointing to Fetullah Gulen and request his extradition once again for being behind the overthrow bid.

The Turkish government has confirmed that the failed bid was organized by followers of Gulen, who is accused of running a campaign through his Gulen Movement to topple the government by means of infiltrating Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, to form a "parallel state."

More than 2,300 institutions or entities administered by the Gulen Movement have been shut down in a widening crackdown launched in the wake of the coup attempt, which left at least 246 people dead and 2,186 others injured.

In addition, more than 13,000 suspects have been detained over the coup, mostly from the military, police and judiciary.

Both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim have called for Gulen's extradition, with the premier even declaring that "any country that stands behind Fethullah Gulen is not our friend."

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have both voiced readiness to consider Ankara's request, but asked for solid evidence presented. They also denied any prior knowledge or U.S. involvement in the plot.

"The United States of America is behind this coup," Turkey's Labor and Social Security Minister Suleyman Soylu said in a televised speech. "The psychopath named Fethullah Gulen is being supported by America."

Cahit Armagan Dilek, a Turkish security and foreign policy analyst, said Russia had reportedly detected the coup attempt and issued a warning to Turkey, an episode the Kremlin spokesman did not deny.

Dilek, a former staff officer in the Turkish Armed Forces, voiced doubt about the U.S. and NATO's failure to do so, referring to the fact U.S. military had moved in equipment after gaining access to the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey in July 2015.

Hasan Unal, head of the department of international relations at Atilim University in Ankara, shared the sentiment.

"It is not possible for a country like the U.S. with high technology not to detect" unusual communications and other activities within the Turkish military as Russia did, he said.

Unal mentioned the facts that many retired American soldiers and experts spoke on TV programs in favor of the coup while it was still unfolding on the night of July 15 and early next morning.

"U.S. foreign policies are full of wrongdoings and it did not surprise me in Turkey either," he said.

The analyst warned of more damage to be done to Turkey-U.S. relations in case of Washington's failure to comply with Ankara's extradition demand.

As Turkey is situated in the volatile Middle East, the Obama administration has been trying to solicit its full support in the battle against the Islamic State.

The two NATO allies, however, have been engaged in an escalating war of words for months over how to treat Kurds in Syria.

Ankara, fearful of the Kurdish population taking advantage of the chaos to carve out more land for a potential independent state in northern Syria, has called for Washington to halt its aid and list the Kurdish Democratic Union Party and its military unit, the People's Protection Units, as terror groups as Turkey did.

Washington, however, sees the Kurish groups as effective ground forces in the operations against the Islamic State and continues its support to them, leading to a rise in anti-American sentiment in Turkey.

Turkish journalist Tolga Tanis warned of "a turning point" in bilateral relations if Washington does not change its position on the extradition issue.

"As a journalist, I would like to convey the impression I had from the public: If the U.S. continues protecting Gulen, the hypothesis suggesting that the U.S. made Gulen plot the coup will be widely accepted among Turkish people," wrote Yahya Bostan, another Turkish journalist. Endit