Ataturk’s secular state died out before his corpse got stiff.
Turkey’s President Erdogan said on Tuesday that the script for the attempted coup on July 15 was “authored abroad” and that the West is supporting terrorism, explicitly calling into question Ankara’s relations to Washington.
the collapse of US-Turkish relations
Speaking on Tuesday in yet another public address, Erdogan asked: “… What kind of strategic partners are we, that you can still host someone whose extradition I have asked for?” He was speaking in reference to the 75-years old US-based cleric Fetullah Gulen whom he accuses of being behind the plot.
Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag is expected to go to Washington to negotiate the extradition of Fethullah Gulen. Bozdag said the US is well aware Gulen is behind the attempted coup.
On Monday, Washington dispatched its highest-ranking military officer to Ankara. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, said the US supports democracy in Turkey and condemned the attempted military coup.
He was not the first US official to do so.