The number of detentions and arrests will increase if people are guilty, Erdogan said during a visit to the Special Forces Headquarters in Ankara.
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Relations between Washington and Ankara soured following the foiled coup attempt on July 15.
On Thursday, Votel said at a public forum that he was anxious about “longer-term” impacts from the failed coup on counter-terrorism operations and the United States’ relationship with the Turkish military.
“Instead of thanking this nation that quashed the coup in the name of democracy, on the contrary you are taking sides with the coup-plotters”, he added, stressing that “the coup plotter is in your country anyway” and “you [the US] can never convince my people otherwise”.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at western leaders for failing to show solidarity with Ankara over a failed coup attempt, saying countries who anxious more about the fate of the perpetrators than democracy could not be Turkey’s friends.
The commander of USA forces in the Middle East, General Joseph Votel, issued a statement yesterday asserting that he had no link to the coup attempt in Turkey, an unusual move by one of the highest-ranked U.S. military leaders.
He said the post-coup attempt measures being carried out in the country’s institutions such as the parliament, National Security Council, council of ministers and other ministries were in line with the law.
But the president has angrily rejected the criticism, suggesting some in the United States were on the side of the plotters.
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 increasingly authoritarian regime has purged the media, universities, schools, the police, judiciary and military of potential opponents.
Separately, a further 27 fighters from the Kurdish Workers’ Party, or PKK, were killed in the same province when Turkish troops launched an air-and-ground operation against groups of PKK fighters attempting to infiltrate early Saturday, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, quoting the military.
Interior Minister Efkan Ala said more than 18,000 people had been detained over the failed coup, and that 50,000 passports had been cancelled. The labour ministry said it was investigating 1,300 staff over their possible involvement.
Erdogan has claimed that 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.
“When five-10 people die in a terror attack, you [Western countries] set the world on fire”, Erdogan said.
Senior U.S. leaders, including President Barack Obama, have spoken with their Turkish counterparts in the last two weeks since the coup attempt.
The US has asked Turkey for evidence of his involvement.
About 1,000 people gathered at the base on Thursday in an anti-US protest to demand the closure of the facility.
The crackdown on Gulenists pressed on unabated on Friday. Among those, more than 20 court reporters were detained, it reported.
Germany is home to Europe’s largest Turkish diaspora, while the Netherlands also has around half a million ethnic Turks.
Turkey accuses U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the coup and has suspended or placed under investigation tens of thousands of his suspected followers, including soldiers, judges and academics.
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“And then they say that “Erdogan has got so angry”!” he fumed.
