Turkey foreign minister says Kerry to visit on August 24

Turkey’s top diplomat on Friday said US Secretary of State John Kerry would visit on August 24 as the country reels from the aftershocks of a failed coup.

It would be the first visit by a top Western dignitary since the July 15 attempt to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with Ankara complaining about of a lack of western support as it mounts a major crackdown which has affected tens of thousands of people.

Speaking to TGRT news channel, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Kerry would arrive in late August, following remarks by Erdogan on Thursday in which he said he believed Washington’s top diplomat would visit on August 21.

Until now, the State Department has declined to comment on whether Kerry would visit Turkey later this month.

Cavusoglu said Kerry wanted to come on August 24 and that Ankara had agreed the date.

“We then looked at our schedule and said that would suit us as well.”

If confirmed, the planned visit would take place at a time of strained relations between the two NATO allies following the attempted putsch by a rogue faction within the military.

Ankara has demanded the extradition of Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey blames for orchestrating the coup alongside his movement. Gulen denies the accusations.

So far, Turkey has sent two sets of documents to Washington detailing his alleged involvement and on Thursday, it issued a warrant for his arrest on grounds of “ordering the July 15 coup”, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Thursday said Washington was still “in the process of going through” the documents.

He said the first batch did not appear to be “a formal extradition request” for Gulen.

“But we subsequently received more documents. We’re looking through them, and I think they’re trying to figure out whether this is the full request. And I don’t think they have reached that determination yet.”

Ankara has come under harsh criticism from the West for the ongoing purge in which over 60,000 people within military, judiciary, civil service and education have been dismissed, detained or are currently under investigation for suspected links to the Gulen movement.