Gulen is also accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.
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“It is not up to you to make that decision”.
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during an event in Ankara late Friday to honour those killed and wounded during the failed July 15 military coup.
While Erdogan has stopped short of directly accusing the Obama administration of fomenting the coup attempt, officials and news outlets are blaming the US with increasing intensity, fueling a surge in anti-Americanism. He cited the situation at the Incirlik military base in southern Turkey, which hosts about 1,500 American military personnel and aircraft – as well as European troops – where power was cut off for several days after the putsch. I have instructions from my government to follow up this matter and we will be very happy to obtain the support of Nigerian legislators on that issue, ” he said.
“The prosecutors aren’t interested in what individual columnists wrote or said”, said the official, who requested anonymity.
In March, about 600 of the 700 US military families in Turkey were evacuated. Cook said he was not aware of any changes in the status of the dependents still in Turkey.
“The Pentagon on Friday flatly rejected allegations by Turkey’s president that the USA military was somehow involved in or in any way supported the recent failed coup in that country”.
While both Clapper and Votel declined to comment when asked about Russia’s reputed role in the hack, citing an ongoing FBI investigation, Clapper said the country has a history of trying to influence political processes among its neighbors and it wouldn’t be a “great leap” to imagine they would also try that in the U.S.
Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik told broadcaster NTV on Friday that the shake-up in the military was not yet over, adding that military academies would now be a target of “cleansing”.
Most of the newly issued arrest warrants were targeted at journalists allegedly affiliated with U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Erdogan government claims was the mastermind of the attempt to overturn failed coup earlier this month.
Gulen himself has denied any involvement in the coup.
“Those countries or leaders who are not anxious about Turkey’s democracy, the lives of our people, its future – while being so anxious about the fate of the putschists – can not be our friends”.
“Erdogan’s ongoing purge of newspapers, academics, teachers and judges has nothing to do with Turkey’s security and everything to do with blocking any opposition to his increasingly authoritarian rule”, he said in a statement to the Lib Dem voice blog.
“If the United Kingdom and our North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies want to protect these core principles, it is time to make it clear to Erdogan that his actions will have lasting global consequences, and I am calling on North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to urgently consider suspension of Turkey’s membership”.
“They are misleading the public and allocating scholarships to the children of the high bureaucracy and after they graduate from school, they send the children to Turkey to attend their universities, ” he said.
The general said he was concerned that the coup’s aftermath “will have an impact on the operations that we do”.
Ankara has demanded the extradition of Gulen from the USA, but Washington has insisted on “concrete evidence” linking him to the attempted upheaval as a precondition.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Eric Clapper concurred with Votel, telling the same audience “many of our interlocutors have been purged or arrested”.
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Turkish officials have said they believe the coup plot was launched in haste because of the planned August military council meeting, when many officers suspected of links to Gulen would have been discharged.
