http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/world/middleeast/turkey-coup-plot-gulen.html 2016-09-07 01:49:15 Turkish Official Says U.S. Was Not Complicit in Coup Plot In an interview on Tuesday with The New York Times Editorial Board, Turkey’s deputy prime minister said “we don’t see any evidence” of American involvement. === Despite dark conspiracy theories in But Mr. Kurtulmus also said it was “the expectation of the people of Turkey” that the American judicial process would lead to the extradition of the person they regard as the chief plotter, “We know that it will take time,” Mr. Kurtulmus said in an interview with The New York Times editorial board. “It is not the business of the policy makers, it is the business of the judiciary system.” He said the Turkish judicial officials had sent 80 boxes of files to their counterparts in the United States containing information to support their contention that Mr. Gulen was implicated in the coup attempt and should be extradited to face charges in Turkey. “It is not a question of time, it is a question of intention,” Mr. Kurtulmus said. “We would like to see the clear intention of our American allies to support Turkish democracy.” The tone of Mr. Kurtulmus’s remarks was muted compared to the anger expressed by Turkish leaders in the immediate aftermath of the coup attempt. Some officials said publicly that they believed the United States was behind the plot, Asked about such allegations, Mr. Kurtulmus said: “Our official position is clear. We don’t see any evidence that U.S. officials supported the coup d’état.” Mr. Kurtulmus acknowledged that some elements of the Turkish news media are continuing to speculate about supposed conspiracies with American connections, but that he did not believe any American officials were aware of the plot. “Otherwise, they could have informed us before the coup d’état,” he said. The plotters, he said, were “so successful in hiding themselves, probably they had a hidden network among themselves.” Mr. Kurtulmus spoke against a backdrop of American attempts to smooth relations with Turkey in the aftermath of the failed coup. The most important was Mr. Gulen, who has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the coup plot, including in an The attempt collapsed within hours, but more than 260 people were killed during the fighting, and the effort to overthrow the elected government shook the political foundations of Turkey, a NATO member and longtime ally of the United States. Mr. Erdogan has since conducted a widespread purge of suspected followers and associates of Mr. Gulen’s, which has alarmed human rights activists and other critics, who see the crackdown as evidence of what they call Mr. Erdogan’s authoritarian tendencies.