Turkey coup bid: Erdogan says U.S. general ‘taking side of plotters’

Cook reiterated a statement issued today by Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, who said in a release today, “Any reporting that I had anything to do with the recent unsuccessful coup attempt in Turkey is unfortunate and completely inaccurate”.

Votel also expressed his concerns that in the long run the coup and Ankara’s efforts to clear the military of coup supporters would affect on US operations in the region.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala said more than 18,000 people had been detained over the failed coup, and that 50,000 passports had been cancelled.

An Istanbul court on Friday remanded 17 Turkish journalists in custody over links to the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who is blamed for this month’s failed coup, charging them with membership of a “terror group”. “I am concerned about what the impact is on those relationships as we continue”.

Gulen has fiercely denied accusations that he was behind the coup to oust Erdogan and has alleged that the Turkish president could have staged the July 15 coup himself for his own personal gain. Who are you? Know your place…” Erdogan said, as quoted by AP.

“Instead of thanking this nation that quashed the coup in the name of democracy, on the contrary you are taking sides with the coup-plotters, ” he added, stressing that “the coup plotter is in your country anyway” and “you [the US] can never convince my people otherwise.”.

Echoing him was James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, who said the purge had affected all areas of the national security apparatus in Turkey.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu shrugged off the concerns, telling reporters on Friday that Turkey’s armed forces, “cleansed” of their Gulenist elements, would prove more “trustworthy… and effective” allies against Islamic State. Ankara has also repeatedly demanded that the United States extradite Gulen to Turkey, while Washington has maintained that Turkey must first file a formal extradition request and provide solid proof of his involvement in the coup. He stopped just short of accusing the USA of supporting the coup.

“We look forward to continuing our close cooperation with Turkey going forward”. “We’re able to mitigate and deal with instances where we’re unable to fly from certain locations”, he said.

On Thursday the Turkish government undertook a major shake-up of its military forces after the July 15-16 coup attempt.

Turkish-U.S. relations have been strained by the coup, which Erdogan blames on a U.S.-based political rival, Fethullah Gulen, whose extradition he is demanding.

Gulen has claimed that Erdogan himself staged the coup to tighten his increasingly autocratic control.

As Turkish authorities on Friday widened their sweeping post-coup crackdown to the business sector, the European Union’s enlargement commissioner implicitly warned that the bloc would freeze Turkey’s accession talks if the crackdown violated the rule of law.

In the aftermath of the coup, media outlets, schools and universities have also been closed down.

“The prosecutors aren’t interested in what individual columnists wrote or said”, said the official, who could not be identified by government protocol. “At this point the reasoning is that prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation”. So far, more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and schools have been either detained, removed or suspended over suspected links with Gulen.

But Cavusoglu, the foreign minister, insisted the journalists were not detained for their “journalistic activity”.