Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan addresses the audience as he visits the Turkish police special forces base damaged by fighting during a coup attempt in Ankara, Turkey, July 29, 2016.
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The detentions were part of an investigation into the financing of Gulen’s activities in Turkey.
Speaking at the presidential palace in Ankara late on Friday, he said western leaders who were criticising the Turkish government’s reaction to the July 15 coup attempt should “mind their own business”.
“Do you support a nondemocratic coup”, or an “increasingly nondemocratic leader?”
“This [failed coup] attempt aimed to weaken the state with all its institutions by getting rid of the government completely”. Washington says “enough evidence” will have to be presented if Gulen is to be handed over, further infuriating Ankara.
But adding to the complexities in an already sensitive relationship, Incirlik was an important base for the coup plotters and its commander General Bekir Ercan Van was subsequently arrested. Some Turkish media and even government officials, including the labor minister, have claimed that the United States was somehow involved, despite an outright denial from the US.
Turkish president Recep Erdogan has ordered that at least 131 media outlets suspected of inciting or sympathizing with this month’s failed military coup be permanently shut down.
President Barack Obama last week denied any USA role in the coup, telling reporters that reports to the contrary are “completely false, unequivocally false”, and that the United States and Turkey have a “critical alliance and partnership”.
Turkey’s defence minister, Fikri Isik, said he’d seek clarity from his U.S. counterpart Ash Carter on exactly what Gen Votel and Mr Clapper meant by their remarks, which Turkish Prime Minister Binaldi Yildirim called a “confession”.
The White House flatly denied Erdogan’s claim on Friday.
Turkey’s foreign minister described as “unfortunate” on Friday comments by the head of USA national intelligence suggesting that purges in the Turkish military after a failed coup were harming cooperation in the fight against Islamic State.
Referring to Votel, Erdogan said, “It’s not up to you to make that decision”.
Mr Obama considers Mr Erdogan “a close ally”, the spokesman said.
He said the attitude of many countries and their officials over the coup attempt in Turkey is shameful in the name of democracy.
‘Turkey has been an extraordinary and vital partner in the region for many years.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plans to bring the armed forces and intelligence unit under his control came after a five-hour long meeting of Turkey’s Supreme Military Council (YAS) on Thursday, an unnamed parliamentary official was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Numerous 10,000 detainees are locked up in horses’ stables and sports halls – some hogtied in horrific stress positions, according to human rights campaigners. If the Gulenist generals are their friends, they are in the same class’.
“We are closing all the barracks in Ankara and Istanbul that sent out coup tanks (and) helicopters”, he promised.
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“We dismissed 34 personnel from the ministry within this framework”.
