22 July 2016•Update: 22 July 2016
By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
President Barack Obama on Friday strongly refuted allegations that Washington was behind last week’s attempted plot to overthrow the Turkish government.
"Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any U.S. involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy are completely false, unequivocally false,” Obama said during a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieta.
“We deplore the attempted coup,” the American president added.
Turkey accuses U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen of masterminding the attempted overthrow of the Turkish government last Friday and has demanded he be extradited to face trial.
Materials related to the extradition of the cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, have been submitted to U.S. authorities.
Obama stressed that efforts to extradite Gulen will be governed by treaties and laws.
“America's governed by rules of law, and those are not ones that the president of the United States or anybody else can just set aside for the sake of expediency, even when we are deeply supportive of Turkish democracy and even when we care deeply about any attempts to overthrow their government or any other illegal actions,” he said.
“It is not a decision that I make, but rather a decision that our Justice Department and investigators and courts make alongside my administration in a very well-structured and well-established process,” he added.
In the putsch’s aftermath 9,251 people have been arrested, including 114 police officers, 6,164 soldiers, 823 judges and prosecutors and 2,150 civilians and other civil servants across Turkey.
“We can't discount how scared and shaken not just the Turkish government is, but Turkish society is,” Obama said, but cautioned against an “over-reaction that could in some fashion lead to a curtailment of civil liberties.
“One of the challenges of a democratic government is making sure that even in the midst of emergencies and passions, we make sure that rule of law and the basic precepts of justice and liberty prevail. And my hope is that that is what will emerge,” he said.
