The Ambassador said the owners of the schools sponsored the recent coup in Turkey. “It is inevitable. We don’t want to think about the bad scenarios”, he said.
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“A Confession From a US General: The Coup Plotters Are Our Allies”, read the headline in the pro-Erdogan Yeni Safak newspaper, one of several media outlets that interpreted Votel’s remarks as an admission of USA complicity in the coup attempt.
“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”, Erdogan said, adding, “Besides, the coup plotter is in your country anyway”.
Earlier on Friday, Erdogan also criticised the head of the USA general command for suggesting that crackdowns in the Turkish military after the failed coup attempt had harmed the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
But Mr Erdogan snarled that the U.S. official should “know [his] place”, adding: “Who are you?”
Turkey’s government has repeatedly said the deadly coup attempt, which martyred more than 230 people and injured almost 2,200 others, was organized by USA -based preacher Fetullah Gulen’s followers and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).
Elsewhere, thousands of Turkish citizens protested outside the gates of the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey on Thursday, which is a major hub for USA and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation aircraft bombing ISIS in nearby Syria.
Even before the failed coup, Turkey was struggling with major security challenges including attacks by Kurdish militants and Islamic State, a grim reality underscored by tourism data yesterday showing a 40 percent fall in foreign visitors in June.
Mr Clapper said numerous US’s “interlocutors” had been “purged or arrested” and this would “set back” joint efforts against Isis.
A day after the failed coup, people in Somalia gathered to protest and strongly condemn the actions of those behind the coup, while celebrating their failure to overthrow Erdogan.
The IFJ said it and the European Federation of Journalists were calling on the EU “to take additional steps to hold Turkish President Erdogan accountable for press freedom breaches”.
In a reference to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey accuses of masterminding the coup, Erdogan also said: “The coup plotter is already in your country, you are already feeding him”.
Secretary of State John Kerry has said the extradition of Gulen, 75, will be considered if Turkey submits clear evidence of his involvement. “Germany must return them”, Cavusoglu said.
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Three news agencies, 16 television stations, 23 radio stations, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers, were ordered closed, AFP reported, citing a Turkish official confirming a government decree published in the official gazette. “We said that we supported President Erdogan, we expressed support for the democratic institutions, the democratically elected government of Turkey”, Schultz said.
