MUSLIMS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TURKEY: “U.S. President Donald Trump told his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan that Washington ‘would take a look at’ the possibility of extraditing a U.S.-based Muslim cleric who Ankara suspects of being behind a 2016 coup attempt, but he made no commitment, the White House said on Tuesday…Turkey’s foreign minister said on Sunday that Trump told Erdogan that Washington was working on extraditing the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who has lived in self-imposed U.S. exile for nearly two decades. Asked about the comment on Monday [12-17-18], another White House official said only that Trump did not commit to extraditing Gulen when he spoke to Erdogan at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires last month. The official offered no further detail on the conversation. Turkish officials blame Gulen for a failed coup in Turkey in which rogue soldiers attacked parliament and shot unarmed civilians. Gulen denies any involvement. The extradition of Gulen is just one of several issues that have strained the relationship between the two countries.”
–Reuters, “Trump Willing to Look at Extraditing Turkish Cleric, but Noncommittal,” The New York Times online, December 18, 2018