Gulen may compromise the US-Turkish relations

Turkey hopes that the United States will fulfill Ankara's request for the extradition of US-based Turkish opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of being the mastermind behind a recent military coup, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

"The rejection [to extradite Gulen] would make us upset, we are still NATO partners. Of course, our relations with the United States would not end, but would be compromised," Sputnik cited Erdogan as saying.

"I'm calling on the United States: what kind of strategic partners are we, that you can still host someone whose extradition I have asked for?" Erdogan said in a speech to local representatives of multinational firms operating in Turkey.

“If we request the extradition of a terrorist then you should fulfill that. If you start asking for documents and what not, then it’s a huge obstacle in our way of fighting terrorism. But at the moment we are running into the difficulty of not being able to receive a terrorist that we are asking to be extradited,” he said.