Obama, speaking at a news conference, said he told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a call earlier this week that the United States had no prior knowledge of the abortive coup.
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Mr Erdogan said he can not understand why Turkey’s “Western friends fail to see it that way”.
Turkey’s Parliament approved a bill to introduce a three-month state of emergency on Thursday following a failed coup attempt on July 15. Some European leaders say they are concerned that the large-scale purges could jeopardize basic freedoms.
The rapid pace of arrests since the failed coup last Friday has anxious many of Turkey’s Western allies, who say they see Turkey going down an increasingly authoritarian road.
Erdogan says there would be a rebuilding process in the army to usher in a new spirit.
Despite Erdogan’s wishes, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry refuses to extradite Gulen to Turkey, asking for evidence that Gulen was involved in the attempted coup.
President Barack Obama said Friday, July 22, the USA would take seriously any “evidence” of wrongdoing by the preacher, who lives in a secluded Pennsylvania compound and has denied the claims against him.
Turkey has detained a nephew of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen’s after last week’s attempted coup, state-run media reported on Saturday, the first time one of his relatives has been apprehended in the current crackdown.
Other institutions ordered to be shut down included 19 trade unions, 15 universities and 35 medical institutes, the agency said.
Brussels has also expressed concern over the imposition of a state of emergency in the wake of the coup bid, but Ankara argues that it is no different to similar measures taken by France previous year.
Aside from the detentions, more than 50,000 other civil servants, including those working in the family and sports ministries, have been sacked or suspended, in a purge whose speed and scale suggested to many observers that their names had already been on target lists. Those dismissed can not work in the public sector and can not work for private security firms.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International had warned Turkey against extending the period allowed for detention without charge, which previously stood at a maximum of four days. All detainees’ communications with their lawyers can be monitored upon order of the public prosecutor’s office.
Nearly 300 of its officers had already been detained after some guards forced TV news presenters to read statements declaring martial law during the abortive coup attempt.
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The commanders, including air force chief Gen. Abidin Unal, were removed by helicopter and later released when the coup attempt collapsed, according to Turkish media reports.
