Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan slammed western countries for now showing immediate solidarity with the country due to their recent failed coup.
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It fired almost half of the generals and arrested hundreds of officers, accusing them of having links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames as the mastermind of the uprising. Gulen has denied any prior knowledge of the plot and says his movement espouses interfaith dialogue.
The foreign minister said anti-U.S. sentiment in Turkey was on the rise and a refusal to extradite Gulen would harm relations. “Who are you? Know your place”. The facility was bombed and fired upon during the attempted coup, and 47 police officers were killed.
“The putschist is already in your country”, Erdogan said.
According to U.S. media reports, Votel had said the coup bid and subsequent round-up of dozens of generals could affect American military cooperation with Turkey.
Votel’s comments came after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier in the day directly linked him to the overthrow attempt.
Turkish authorities blame the coup on US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen and now seek to weed out his followers from all aspects of Turkish life, including the military, legal system, media and education.
“It’s not up to you to make that decision”. Obama considers Erdogan “a close ally”, the spokesperson said. “You can never convince my people otherwise”.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu addresses the media in Ankara, Turkey, July 29, 2016.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Cavusoglu said the purge of those suspected of being involved in the coup is rendering the Turkish army more efficient.
But Cavusoglu denied the army was weaker as a result of the ongoing purge.
According to the latest figures by Interior Minister Efkan Ala, over 9,000 people, mostly military, have been put under arrest in the aftermath of the failed coup, which caused the deaths of over 200 people.
“We are disturbed by our European and Western friends’ approach”, Cavusoglu told reporters.
“I am concerned that it will impact the level of cooperation and collaboration that we have with Turkey which has been excellent frankly”. “They started to give us lessons in democracy, to talk down to us, to warn us”.
According to the state-run Anadolu news agency 49,211 passports have been cancelled and 18,044 people have been detained since the coup. Of those, more than 3,500 have since been released, a senior government official said.
Almost 16,000 people were detained over alleged links to the uprising, about half of whom were formally arrested to face trial.
More than 66,000 people in the wider civil service have been suspended from their jobs.
The government is now going after Gulen’s network of schools and other institutions overseas.
The White House said Friday that officials had received documents from the Turkish government requesting extradition of the cleric from Pennsylvania.
“That surprised me greatly”, Winfried Kretschmann told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Of course we will not do that”.
“We’ve got ways to mitigate that, to manage that right now”, he said.
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The foreign minister said that “if they are engaged in a crime, they can not be untouchable or exempt from prosecution”. The judges must decide whether to confirm their arrest.
