​In the first visit by a senior American official since last month’s failed coup, the vice-president should brace for a long meal. Over starters, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might remind him why most Turks blame the coup on the Gulen community, a secretive Islamic movement, and repeat the demand that America (whose government they also reckon played a role) extradite Fethullah Gulen, the group’s leader. During the main course, Mr Biden might want to point out that detaining or suspending 80,000 people, including bureaucrats, businessmen and journalists, over alleged Gulenist links does not meet a reasonable definition of due process. By dessert, the two men are likely to have moved on to the topic of Syria—where they agree on the need to remove Islamic State from strongholds overlooking the Turkish border, but disagree on the means. America has outsourced the job to Kurdish insurgents; Turkey considers them terrorists. Coffee or tea?