The United States (US) Department of State on Friday rejected a Turkish official’s accusations that Washington was behind the 2016 failed coup, dismissing the claims as “wholly false.”
The rebuke came after Turkey’s Minister of the Interior, Suleyman Soylu told a local daily that though Ankara has long blamed US-based Muslim preacher and businessman Fethullah Gulen for launching the attack, it was “blatantly clear” that the putsch was carried out by the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO) upon Washington’s orders. The minister further noted that “Europe was excited about it.”
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Over 200 people were killed in an attempt to overthrow President Erdogan’s government in July 2016, when rogue soldiers took over warplanes, helicopters, and tanks to seize state institutions. In response, Turkish authorities detained nearly 300,000 people with links to Gulen—a former Erdogan ally—and dismissed thousands of military officials, civil servants, pilots, police officers, academics, and teachers. Several media outlets with potential ties to the movement were also shut down, and many opposition lawmakers were arrested. At the time, the government deemed the crackdown necessary to “root out all coup supporters from the state apparatus”.
The US on Friday condemned Soylu’s claims, emphasising that it had no role in the 2016 attempted putsch, and recalled that the US government had promptly denounced the attack when it took place. “These remarks and other unfounded and irresponsible claims of U.S. responsibility for events in Turkey are inconsistent with Turkey’s status as a NATO Ally and strategic partner of the United States,” a press statement read. Washington has also consistently rejected Ankara’s demands for Gulen’s extradition, citing a lack of credible evidence against him. Gulen has been in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999.
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The comments come amid Turkey’s attempts in recent months to repair ties with Washington and the EU, after coming under fire from the two parties for its purchase of Russian air defence systems, and its actions in the eastern Mediterranean, respectively. Turkey and the US have also locked heads over the latter’s support for the Kurdish YPG forces in Syria, which Turkey claims is a terrorist group with links to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), a designated terrorist organisation in Turkey as well as the EU, Japan, Australia, and the US. However, Ankara has indicated that it wants to work towards achieving a “positive agenda” with the EU and that it wishes to improve and strengthen relations with the United States under President Joe Biden.
Separately, on Wednesday, the US said that it was concerned about growing homophobic sentiments surrounding protests at Bogazici University in Istanbul after minister Soylu labelled some student demonstrators “LGBT deviants” on social media last week. Additionally, Turkish President Erdogan also asserted in a news conference on Monday that “there is no such thing” as LGBT, adding that “this country is national and spiritual, and will continue to walk into the future as such.”