Turkey navigates tense relations with key allies

“There must definitely be some among them who were subjected to unfair procedures”, he said in comments published by state-run Anadolu news agency.

He also repeated Turkey’s expectation that US -based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for orchestrating the attempted July 15-16 putsch, be extradited.

Dunford reiterated that the USA was in full support of the democratic system in Turkey, and would continue to cooperate with Turkey in all areas, including the military, said the statement.

Turkey’s government has repeatedly said the deadly coup attempt was organized by Gulen’s followers.

Instead, Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, found protesters outside the American embassy holding signs saying “Get Out Coup Plotter Dunford” and “Dunford go home”.

The cabinet meeting in Turkey was held a day after a government decree introduced sweeping changes to the military aimed at bringing the armed forces further under civilian authority.

Kurtulmus said German courts normally address cases very slowly, “yet the German Constitutional Court prohibited our president addressing the rally via teleconference in less than 24 hours”.

Germany is going through a bumpy patch in its relations with Turkey but past experience has shown this can be overcome, Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said today.

Turkey on Monday slammed a German court decision that prevented President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from addressing a demonstration in Germany denouncing Turkey’s failed July 15 coup, and summoned a German diplomat in protest.

The tension comes at a time when relations between Germany and Turkey are already strained over the German parliament’s decision to brand as genocide the World War I-era Armenian massacre by Ottoman forces.

European officials and human rights groups have expressed increasing concern with the Turkish crackdown, in which almost 70,000 people have been suspended or dismissed from their jobs in sectors including the civil service, education, the judiciary, health care and the media.

Also Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu demanded the 28-nation European Union say exactly when Turkish citizens will be granted visa-free entry and added that, if the rules aren’t loosened, Ankara will back off a deal to stem the flow of migrants into Europe.