The Turkish president lashed out at Washington and the country’s other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies a day after the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, met with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim – an encounter created to try to narrow the rift that has developed since the July 15 coup attempt.
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Turkish forces flying attack helicopters and drones raided a forested area in southwestern Turkey overnight, capturing a fugitive unit of commandos that had tried to assassinate or kidnap President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month during a coup attempt, officials said Monday.
The government says the coup was instigated by USA -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who has been living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. Turkey is said to have demanded the extradition of Gulen from the US, but Washington has yet to cooperate.
Gulen was once an Erdogan ally until ties soured several years ago.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said his government had started “virus and traitor cleansing” to weed out Gulenists from state institutions.
“If he escapes then the USA would either have turned a blind eye or approved of it”, Bozdag said.
Erdoğan also claimed he sent over 4,000 files to German Chancellor Angela Merkel about terrorists in the country.
These concerns have been angrily dismissed by President Erdogan, who said those critical of the crackdown are siding with the coup plotters.
It is estimated more than three million people of Turkish origin live in Germany, many of them pro-Erdogan.
Turkey also summoned Germany’s charge d’affaires to the foreign ministry in Ankara to explain why Mr Erdogan was prevented from addressing a rally in Cologne via a video-link on Sunday.
A regional court ruled, however, that no messages from speakers elsewhere – such as politicians in Turkey – could be shown on a video screen at the rally.
Germany has a sizeable population of people with Turkish roots.
Echoing Yildirim’s tone, deputy prime minister Numan Kurtulmus said: “If there are any mistakes, we will correct them”.
German officials insist there was no wrongdoing. That decision depicts the company’s “bias”, Yildirim said.
Erdogan had stronger words Tuesday as the two countries’ relationships frayed further.
Erdogan has arrested or fired from their jobs tens of thousands of Turkish citizens in suspicion of involvement with July’s coup attempt.
The Turkish government launched a sweeping crackdown on Gulen’s movement, which it characterizes as a terrorist organization and which runs schools, charities and businesses internationally. About 18,000 people have been detained or arrested, a lot of them from the military, and authorities have said the purge will continue.
Meanwhile, Customs and Commerce Minister Bulent Tufenkci said the overall cost of the coup on the Turkish economy could amount to US$100 billion (RM405.6 billion).
“People who see tanks in the streets and the parliament bombed will not come to Turkey”.
The president had previously said that foreign states could have been involved, while not giving clues as to which countries might be responsible.
What is Turkey’s role in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation?
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The Obama administration sought to downplay the rift with a key North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, one on the front lines of the fight against Islamist terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq. “But the United States must resist it”, he added.
