Images of detained soldiers with bruises and bandages have anxious civil rights groups over mistreatment.
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Turkey purges military of suspected Gulen supporters * Erdogan wants army, intelligence agency under his control * Washington says purges harming fight against Islamic State * Purges also hitting business world, media, academia * Gulen says Erdogan “poisoned” by power By Tulay Karadeniz and Daren Butler ANKARA/ISTANBUL, July 29 (Reuters) – Turkey has begun overhauling its armed forces following a failed coup, but its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally the United States complained that the purges of generals and officers were hindering cooperation in the fight against Islamic State.
Clapper, asked about the impact of events in Turkey on the fight against Islamic State, replied: “It’s having an effect, because it’s affected all segments of the national security apparatus in Turkey”.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to take all steps “within the limits of the law” as Turkey seeks legal retribution for those suspected of involvement in the coup.
“A Confession From a U.S. General: The Coup Plotters Are Our Allies”, read the headline in the pro-Erdogan Yeni Safak newspaper, one of several media outlets that interpreted Votel’s remarks as an admission of U.S. complicity in the coup attempt.
Erdogan lashed out at Gulen again on Friday, and accused the USA of being ungrateful to him for putting down the coup by a faction of army leaders.
‘Instead of thanking this country which repelled a coup attempt, you take the side of the coup plotters.
Erdogan has accused the USA of harboring the coup’s alleged mastermind, Fethullah Gulen, a cleric living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.
Ankara has demanded that the US extradite Gulen, but Washington insists on “concrete evidence” linking Gulen to the July 15 coup attempt as a precondition for his extradition.
Almost 16,000 people have been detained over suspected links to the failed uprising and about half of them will face trial. About 40 percent of all generals and admirals have been dismissed since the coup.
Turkish defence minister Fikri Isik told broadcaster NTV on Friday that the shake-up in the military was not yet over, adding that military academies would now be a target of “cleansing”.
The purges have also hit government ministries, schools and universities, the police, civil service, media and business. Of those, more than 8,000 were formally arrested pending trial. Arrest warrants for dozens of others were issued earlier this week.
With tensions rising between Ankara and Bishkek, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency published a report that a Gulen-linked foundation ran nine primary and secondary schools, 16 lycees, two global schools and one university in Kyrgyzstan.
“The Berlin government should extradite them”, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu told Broadcaster CNN Turk on July 28. While Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border past year, Erdogan has been moving to fix frayed relations between the nations and will meet President Vladimir Putin for talks in St. Petersburg next month.
The detentions were part of an investigation into the financing of Gulen’s activities in Turkey.
“The power of the people has overcome the power of the tanks”, he said.
Turkey is a key member of the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State jihadists in Syria, with its Incirlik air base used as a launch hub for raids on the group.
In protest against mass dismissals in wake of failed coup bid, two high-ranked Turkish officers have resigned just hours before the country’s Supreme Military Council began a meeting to discuss a review of the armed forces.
U.S. intelligence chiefs have warned purges in Turkey are harming the fight against ISIS, after Turkish President Erdogan jailed some of the country’s best officers.
About 1,000 people gathered at the base on Thursday in an anti-US protest to demand the closure of the facility.
The cleric denies the charges, but Turkey insists radical measures are needed to eradicate what Erdogan describes as the “virus” of Gulen’s influence across all Turkish institutions.
The crackdown on Gulenists pressed on unabated on Friday.
In Germany, the governor of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said his regional government received a letter from the Turkish consul-general in Stuttgart asking it to check and “reevaluate” organizations, facilities and schools “which in the opinion of the Turkish government are, it says, “controlled” by the Gulen movement”.
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Mr Obama considers Mr Erdogan “a close ally”, the spokesman said.
