Erdogan blames ‘foreign powers’ for coup and says West is supporting terrorism

Ankara accuses the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen of being behind the plot and has stepped up pressure on the United States authorities to extradite him back to Turkey.

Meanwhile, Customs and Commerce Minister Bulent Tufenkci said the overall cost of the coup on the Turkish economy could amount to US$100 billion (RM405.6 billion).

Rome and Ankara bickered yesterday (2 August) over an Italian investigation into accusations that Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan’s son Bilal laundered money.

Erdogan and many Turks have been frustrated by US and European criticism of a crackdown in the wake of the putsch, accusing the West of greater concern about the rights of the plotters than the gravity of the threat to a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member state.

“I would consider them to be betraying the nation”. Authorities were tip-off from a man who spotted them as he was hunting wild boar, the Dogan agency said.

Turkish foreign ministry sources said the envoy was summoned to “strongly express our disappointment” over the ban on a popularly elected leader from addressing the rally and called the German approach “unacceptable”. The U.S.is still harboring Gulen, where his group of supporters holds its most important financial assets, Erdogan said.

Jagland said he was disturbed by photographs that have emerged of some of the detained suspected coup-plotters appearing bruised, as well as by allegations of torture or mistreatment. This was not done only domestically…the scenario was written outside of Turkey.”.

Barely a day after the Pentagon’s top official arrived in Turkey in a bid to cool growing tensions between Ankara and Washington, a Turkish lawyer filed a criminal complaint against him and two other senior US officials.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, this is just the lasts diplomatic row between the two countries.

“In general, the U.S.is in a very tight spot here”.

The minister said that if Gulen leaves the US for another country, it would be with the full knowledge of USA authorities. If we request the extradition of a terrorist then you should fulfill that…

“In terms of fighting against terrorism, we have no time to lose, six months or one year, that’s simply intolerable”, Erdogan said.

“I would like to say that there had been too little understanding in Europe on what challenges this has caused to the democratic institutions and the state institutions of Turkey”, he said, adding that this needed to be dealt with.

Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999 and has denied any involvement in the putsch. The coup occurred on July 15, a Friday, but Turkish financial markets were reopened that weekend. Turkey implemented judicial reforms as part of its now-defunct bid to join the European Union, but global legal experts have warned of increasing political interference in the courts.

Under the U.S. -Turkish extradition treaty, a country can bar extradition if it “concludes that the request for extradition has, in fact, been made to prosecute or punish the person sought for an offense of a political character or on account of his political opinions”.

Meanwhile, a crackdown in Turkey after the unsuccessful coup attempt is still continuing amid global concerns.

Since the failed coup attempt Erdogan has imposed a state of emergency and launched a sweeping crackdown on those believed to be against him.