The activist says there have been multiple reports of arson, vandalism and attacks against Gulenist supporters in the Netherlands, which has been heightened by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s personal resentment of the cleric.
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Netherlands is a home to some 500,000 Turks, the majority of whom are descendants of Turkish migrant workers that settled in the country in the 1960s and 1970s.
“So I’m concerned about what the impact is on those relationships as we continue to move forward”, Votel said during the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday.
Turkey’s government has repeatedly said the deadly coup attempt, which martyred at least 246 people and injured more than 2,100 others, was organized by Gulen’s followers.
Those held have all been charged with “membership of a terror group”.
There were 290 people killed in the coup, and thousands have been detained.
“If we hadn’t removed the people this coup attempt would have been successful”, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara Friday, speaking about the crackdown.
The Turkish authorities have detained over 18,000 people in a massive crackdown on the military and civil service, with members being implicated in the coup, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said on Friday.
The court freed four journalists linked to Gulen, who advocates for a free press, but remanded 17 into custody ahead of trial on terror charges.
Cevikoz said that Erdogan’s ambition to transform the Turkish political system from a parliamentary to a presidential one also faces opposition from within his own Justice and Development (AKP) party.
“And if there is even the slightest doubt that the (treatment) is improper, then the consequences will be inevitable”, he told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Turkey’s foreign minister alleged on July 27 that some prosecutors and judges who are part of Gulen’s movement are now in Germany.
Turkey’s purge of its military after a failed coup attempt is hindering cooperation in the United States-led fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), James Clapper, the USA director of national intelligence, said on Thursday (July 28).
“You are taking the side of coup plotters instead of thanking this state for defeating the coup attempt”, Erdogan said at a military centre in Golbasi outside Ankara, where air strikes left dozens dead during the coup. He did not mention his views about the coup plotters in the statement.
The president’s critics say Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup, is using the mass purges to crack down indiscriminately on dissent and to tighten his grip on the nation of almost 80 million.
“The main opposition party has already made its position very clear, they are against this kind of development and that is going to be problematic”.
Erdogan had earlier also lashed out at a top U.S. general who had expressed concerns about military relations after the putsch.
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Votel swiftly denied any link to the coup however.
