The leader of U.S. Central Command is denying allegations by Turkey’s president that he had a hand in the recent coup attempt by supporting dissenters.
“Any reporting that I had anything to do with the recent unsuccessful coup attempt in Turkey is unfortunate and completely inaccurate,” Gen. Joseph Votel said in a statement.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Votel should “know your place” after comments Votel made suggesting jailing Turkish military members could impact the relationship between the U.S. and Turkey.
“It’s not up to you to make that decision. Who are you? Know your place! You are taking the side of coup plotters instead of thanking this state for defeating the coup attempt,” Erdogan said, according to BBC.
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum this week, Votel said he’s worried about the long-term impacts of the U.S. relationship with Turkey, a NATO ally, since some of the Turkish military officials who the U.S. has worked with are now in jail.
“We’ve certainly had relationships with a lot of Turkish leaders, military leaders in particular,” he said. “I am concerned about what the impact is on those relationships as we kind of continue to move forward.”
Asked if some of those people are in jail now, Votel replied, “Yes, I think some of them are in jail.”
A White House spokesman similarly denied Erdogan’s accusations on Friday that the U.S. government was involved in any way in the failed coup.
“It is entirely false,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. “There is no proof of that at all … and speculation along those lines is not particularly constructive,” nor true.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Peter Cook pointed out that the U.S. has “had excellent miltiary relations with Turkey for decades.”
“Any suggestion anyone in the department supported the coup in any way would be absurd. We look forward to continuing our close cooperation with Turkey going forward,” he said.
During a news conference last Friday with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Obama denied allegations of U.S. involvement.
“Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any U.S. involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy, are completely false; unequivocally false,” Obama said.
He told Erdogan that he and his government must know that. “Because when rumors like that start swirling around, that puts our people at risk on the ground in Turkey, and it threatens what is a critical alliance and partnership between the United States and Turkey.”
About 1,700 military personnel have been kicked out over the attempted coup, and about a third of Turkey’s 260 generals were detained, Reuters reported. More than 100 have already been charged.
Votel also said that while airstrikes against the Islamic State from Incirlik air base in Turkey have resumed, “some of the friction that still exists with the follow-on activities, that is impacting our operations. We’ve got ways to mitigate that, to manage that right now, and we are, but I am concerned about the loner term impact.”
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper made similar comments in Aspen on Thursday, saying that the coup is affecting the fight against the Islamic State.
“Many of our interlocutors have been purged or arrested,” Clapper said. “There’s no question this is going to set back and make more difficult cooperation with the Turks.”
The Pentagon played down the flap over Votel’s comments as a misunderstanding as a result of misreporting of the context of his remarks.
Votel, as the head of U.S. Central Command, does not have Turkey in his area of responsibility.
Turkey, a NATO ally, falls under U.S. European Command, and the U.S. general in charge there is Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who is also the supreme NATO commander.
Scaparrotti told the Aspen Security Forum Thursday night that he has been in contact with his Turkish counterpart, Turkish chief of defense Gen. Hulusi Akar, who was not part of the coup, and in fact was briefly taken hostage by the coup-plotters before he was rescued by Turkish Special forces.
But Scaparrotti confirmed that many of the lower level officers had been arrested, and that was having an effect on communications and coordination.
“We will continue to build where we need to, to rebuild our relationships, Scaparrotti said “Some of the officers that we have our relationships with in Turkey are now either detained, in some cases retired as a result of the coup, so we’ve got some work to do there.”
Scaparotti also said he had been invited to visit Turkey again by Akar, and that he planned to take him up on the offer soon.
Jamie McIntyre and Nicole Duran contributed to this report.
