Erdoğan to brief G-20 leaders on coup attempt, anti-Gülen fight

“Our president will find the opportunity to inform his counterparts on the coup attempt and fight against FETÖ during the G-20 Summit and his bilateral talks,” Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın told reporters at a press conference on Aug. 31. 

The G-20 Summit will be held in Guangzhou, China on Sept. 3 and 4 with the participation of the world’s wealthiest nations, including the United States, Russia, China and Japan. Kalın said Erdoğan will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as well as EU President Jean Claude Juncker. 

Erdoğan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will also hold a quadripartite meeting to extensively discuss the Turkey-EU migrant deal, which includes granting visa liberalization to Turkish nationals in return for the implementation of the Readmission Agreement. 

Erdoğan’s briefing to world leaders will also include the ongoing Syria unrest and the fight against global terror organizations, particularly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Kalın said. 


Erdoğan’s meetings with Obama, Putin 

Upon a question, Kalın confirmed an Erdoğan-Obama meeting and underlined that the two leaders will also discuss Turkey’s request of the extradition of Fethullah Gülen from the U.S. “This issue will surely be on the agenda of our president’s meeting with Mr. Obama,” he said, recalling Erdoğan’s lengthy meeting with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on the same issue on Aug. 24. 

Kalın underlined that a legal agreement between the two countries on extradition requests also required the detention of sought individuals and repeated Turkey’s demand for the immediate arrest of Gülen. 

Kalın said that Gülen and his aides who staged the coup attempt against Turkey were walking freely in the U.S., adding, “Showing tolerance to them is unacceptable.”   

Erdoğan’s meeting with Putin will be a follow-up to the leaders’ last talk in St. Petersburg on Aug. 9, Kalın said, informing the two leaders will discuss the ongoing ties normalization process.