Daily Times

ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused a top US general of facilitating Turkey’s coup plotters after commenting that the country’s turmoil could downgrade military cooperation with Washington.

“You are taking the side of coup plotters instead of thanking the state for defeating the coup attempt,” Erdogan said at Golbasi’s military centre, where air strikes left several dead during the failed putsch on July 15.

As quoted by the US media, US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel had said the rounding-up of dozens of generals could affect America’s military cooperation with Turkey. In particular, Votel suggested the US had lost key Turkish military interlocutors, who are jailed and accused of being behind the coup.

“Know your place!” Erdogan told Votel, using one of his favourite expressions of anger. “The coup plotter is already in your country and you are feeding him,” he said, referring to the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen who Ankara accuses of being the mastermind of the coup.

Turkey is a key member of the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria with its Incirlik air base used as a launch hub for raids on the group.