Turkey believes Trump will not repeat mistakes of last administration - Cavusoglu

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speaks during a news conference after the talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Moscow, Russia, December 20, 2016. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday he believes that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will not make the same mistakes as the outgoing administration in relations with Turkey. Addressing Turkish diplomats gathered in Ankara for an annual ambassadors' conference, Cavusoglu said Turkey expects Washington to extradite U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and to end its cooperation with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Turkey blames the followers of Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, for orchestrating a failed coup attempt last July. It views the YPG, which has enjoyed U.S. support in the fight against Islamic State, as an extension of Kurdish militants fighting inside Turkey. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Daren Butler)