Turkey says no compromise with Washington on cleric’s extradition

US Vice President Joe Biden is expected to visit Turkey later this month, the Turkish prime minister said Saturday, as relations between the two countries are strained over Ankara´s demand to extradite an exiled cleric blamed for the July 15 coup attempt. Gulen denies the accusations and has condemned the coup.

Police began searches of the city’s main Caglayan court and courts in the districts of Gaziosmanpasa and Bakirkoy with arrest warrants for 173 prosecutors and other judicial staff working there, the Dogan news agency said.

Turkish authorities said that they arrested 35,000 people, where 17,000 of them were formally detained since the attempted coup.

Authorities have suspended, detained or begun investigating tens of thousands of soldiers, police, judges, journalists and civil servants.

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A delegation from the U.S. Justice Department will be arriving on August 22 to discuss extradition.

Ekrem Beyaztas was caught by border guards just south of the Turkish town of Kilis, a Turkish official said, asking not to be named.

“Our initial assessment is that he was trying to reach PYD-controlled parts of northern Syria in an attempt to seek protection”, the official said. Erdogan cast the allegations as an manoeuvre orchestrated by Gulen’s followers to undermine him. Please see our terms of service for more information.

That response has infuriated Ankara, which accuses the West of showing more concern about the purges than the coup itself. They were flown to Istanbul for questioning.

There is concern among Turkey’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies as well as the European Union, which it aspires to join, that Erdogan – in power the prime minister or president since 2002 – might be using the purge to eliminate dissent. Numerous martial ascribes are also on the run after snubbing to coming back home.