Relations between Turkey, Biden Administration off to Bad Start

Turkey’s relations with the new US administration were off to a “bad” start after Ankara accused Washington of being behind the failed coup attempt in 2016. This comes in the wake of a report by the US Treasury Department issued last month accusing Turkey of being a hub for raising funds for ISIS.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Thursday that Washington was behind the coup that Ankara has blamed on preacher Fethullah Gulen. Soylu told Turkish Hurriyet newspaper that the US had orchestrated the coup attempt while Gulen’s network carried it out.

“It is blatantly clear the United States is behind [the coup attempt on] July 15. It was FETO who carried it out upon their orders,” he said, as reported by Reuters.

Reuters said that since the failed coup, Turkey has detained some 292,000 people over suspected links to Gulen and has suspended or sacked more than 150,000 civil servants.

The Turkish minister’s accusations against Washington came days after a report by the US Treasury Department on Jan. 4, which highlighted the presence of “logistical hubs” for transferring money in Turkey for the benefit of ISIS.

Aykan Erdemir, a former Turkish lawmaker and chief researcher on Turkish affairs, said in a report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington that Turkey had been, since 2014, “a major state used by ISIS to smuggle militants, weapons and money into Syria.”

Ankara is seeking to mend the strained relations with Washington, which imposed sanctions on Turkey last year for its purchase of Russian air defense systems. The country is also looking for a rapprochement with the European Union, which is threatening to take punitive measures against Ankara over a dispute with Athens in the eastern Mediterranean.