Its clampdown seeks to target anyone suspected of ties to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government accuses of masterminding the plot.
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The 75-year-old insisted that he had nothing to do with the July 15 failed putsch that left more than 260 people dead, and that triggered a harsh response from Erdogan and his allies.
On Thursday, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, a think tank, in Colorado, Gen. Joseph Votel said: “We have certainly had relationships with a lot of Turkish leaders – military leaders in particular”.
Referring to Votel, Erdogan said, “It’s not up to you to make that decision”.
“Instead of thanking this [the Turkish] government for thwarting this coup attempt, and for [maintaining] democracy, you are standing by the putschists”, Erdogan said.
Erdogan on Friday accused Votel of siding with Turkey’s coup plotters, a day after the general reportedly commented that the country’s turmoil could downgrade military cooperation with Washington.
“When five-10 people die in a terror attack, you [Western countries] set the world on fire”, Erdogan said.
“I have repeatedly denounced the coup attempt and emphatically reject any involvement therein”.
The immediate concern raised by Erdogan’s outburst was for continued flight operations out of the USA airbase at Incirlik in southeastern Turkey against ISIS in Syria.
Turkey implemented a shake-up of the military on Thursday after almost half of its 358 generals were sacked for complicity in the coup.
Among the limited changes in the most senior commanders, the deputy armed forces chief General Yasar Guler was appointed commander of Turkey’s gendarmerie force, while the head of the prestigious First Army, General Umit Dundar, replaced him as Akar’s second-in-command, the presidential spokesman said.
The latest purge came from within Turkey’s Foreign Ministry, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu making the announcement while honouring policemen and civilians killed on the night the failed coup took place.
Turkey’s post-coup purge has raised concerns throughout Europe.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim also announced that all military barracks used by the coup plotters on July 15 would be closed down.
Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the USA state of Pennsylvania since 1999, again maintained his innocence during an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, saying he had himself suffered from previous coups in Turkey.
In Germany, home to Turkey’s biggest overseas diaspora, tens of thousands of Erdogan supporters plan to rally in Cologne on Sunday, following skirmishes between the president’s backers and opponents which have put authorities on edge.
“If they ask whether the fight against Daesh (Islamic State) has been weakened due to the army purge, we say that, on the contrary, when the army has been cleansed…it becomes more trustworthy, clean and effective in the fight”, Cavusoglu told reporters.
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“The NTIC is not a Turkish government-run institution, but a privately funded institution by a group of Turkish investors”, he said.
