“The United States has repeatedly condemned the failed coup in Turkey, and we continue to convey our absolute support for Turkey’s democratically elected civilian government and democratic institutions”, Cook said, noting that Turkey is “a close North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally and a vital member” of the coalition working to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
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Meanwhile, some of the dozens of detained journalists appeared in court, suspected of ties to the coup.
Speaking earlier in the day, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey wanted Gulen’s extradition process to conclude rapidly and has asked the United States to make sure he does not escape to another country.
Sixty-four employees at the Constitutional Court were suspended until an assessment could be made on any possible links they have to the July 15 attempted coup, the court said in a statement. “Look at your own deeds”, Erdogan said in a speech at his presidential palace.
Erdogan says Gulen harnessed his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and overseas over decades, to create a secretive “parallel state” that aimed to take over the country.
Almost 16,000 people were detained over alleged links to the uprising, about half of whom were formally arrested to face trial.
Erdogan says the USA was taking sides with coup plotters.
The U.S. director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said on Thursday the purges within the Turkish military were having an impact on bilateral cooperation, adding: “Many of our interlocutors have been purged or arrested”.
On Friday, Yildirim announced the Akinci military base in Ankara, where military chief of staff Akar and the air, navy and land commanders were taken in handcuffs the night of the coup, will be closed and transformed into a place “to commemorate our martyrs”.
“The putschist is already in your country”, Erdogan said. “Germany must return them”, Cavusoglu said.
Demirtas echoed other critics who point to Erdogan’s previous alliance with Gulen, with whom he once shared compatible Islamist visions for Turkey.
While Erdogan has stopped short of directly accusing the Obama administration of fomenting the coup attempt, officials and news outlets are blaming the USA with increasing intensity, fueling a surge in anti-Americanism.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said any suggestion that the USA supported the coup was absurd and wrong.
Gen Votel had said on Thursday: “We have certainly had relationships with a lot of Turkish leaders – military leaders in particular”.
Gulen has claimed that Erdogan himself staged the coup to tighten his increasingly autocratic control.
As the number of detentions since the failed putsch passed 18,000, the European Union’s enlargement commissioner implicitly warned that the bloc would freeze Turkey’s accession talks if the crackdown violated the rule of law. Also to be closed are the barracks in Ankara and Istanbul from which coup plotters launched helicopters and tanks.
Turkey ordered another 47 journalists detained on Wednesday, singling out columnists and other staff of the now defunct Zaman newspaper, the government official said.
Steinmeier said bringing back the death penalty, which has been discussed by Turkish officials, would be “a major step backward” for Turkey.
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More than 66,000 public sector workers have been dismissed from their posts and 50,000 passports cancelled, while the labour ministry is investigating 1,300 of its staff.
