Erdogan on Friday accused Votel of being on the side of Turkey’s coup plotters after commenting that the country’s turmoil could downgrade military cooperation with Washington.
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“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.
In remarks made on Turkey’s private NTV channel Friday, Celik criticized Gen. Joseph Votel for his statements, saying he should have condemned the coup attempt, especially since Turkey was the U.S.’s ally.
Erdogan’s remarks come as Turkish officials have arrested thousands of military figures, police officers, judiciary officials, academics and civil servants over affiliation to the network of US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom they accuse to have orchestrated the attempted coup.
But Mr Erdogan snarled that the United States official should “know [his] place”, adding: “Who are you?”
Speaking at the presidential palace in Ankara late on Friday, Erdogan said Western leaders who were criticising the Turkish government’s reaction to the July 15 coup attempt should “mind their own business”.
As the number of detentions since the failed putsch passed 18,000, the European Union’s enlargement commissioner implicitly warned that the bloc would freeze Turkey’s accession talks if the crackdown violated the rule of law.
Saniye Calkin, who heads the Netherlands-based Hizmet organisation of Gulen supporters, said that its members were in hiding after reports of death threats, arson, vandalism and physical assaults in different Dutch towns and cities. “We’re able to mitigate and deal with instances where we’re unable to fly from certain locations”, he said.
Votel was referring to some Turkish officers who are now in jail for their role in the coup attempt.
The authorities had said earlier this year that over 2,000 people were being prosecuted on charges of insulting the president.
Around a third of Turkey’s roughly 360 generals were detained, and more than 100 of them have already been charged pending trial. Gulen is just a “pawn” in a larger US operation to create a “Europe-Turkey-Mideast geography that the USA will control directly”, he said.
With long land borders with Syria and Iraq, Turkey is a central part of the US-led military operation against Islamic State.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu shrugged off the concerns, telling reporters on Friday that Turkey’s armed forces, “cleansed” of their Gulenist elements, would prove more “trustworthy… and effective” allies against Islamic State.
On Thursday, Cavusoglu told local media CNN Turk that ties between Turkey and the US would be impacted if the USA did not hand over Gulen to Turkey. The authorities say such closures target only Gulenists, though some journalists detained are known for left-wing secular views and do not share the Gulenists’ religious outlook.
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The foreign minister said Turkey wanted Gulen’s extradition process to conclude rapidly and has asked the United States to make sure he does not escape to another country.
