BEIRUT, LEBANON (3:20 P.M.) – Turkish Justice Minister Abdul Hamid Gul said on Friday that the U.S. authorities should handover the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Gul stressed the need to handover the leader of the SDF to Ankara when he enters the United States. Turkey has criticized Washington’s treatment of him “as a legitimate political figure,” according to the agency Reuters.
U.S. senators urged the State Department on Wednesday to expedite the issuance of a visa to the commander, Mazloum Abdi, so he could visit the United States and discuss the situation in Syria.
Ankara says he is a terrorist linked to Kurdish insurgents waging an insurgency on its territory.
Gul told reporters: “Turkey will ask the U.S. authorities to detain him once he enters the United States, and that the State Department has transferred the extradition request to Washington.”
In the same context, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Thursday, said he will submit a request to the United States to extradite the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, to Ankara.
Erdogan stressed that “the United States must hand us the terrorist nicknamed [Mazloum] and wanted by our authorities’ red bulletin,” according to his statements to the Anatolia News Agency.
