Turkey: Russia no alternative to NATO

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu plays down Western concerns about recent rapprochement between Turkey and Russia following a period of strain. 

Speaking to reporters in Ankara Friday, Cavusoglu said relations with Moscow were not an alternative to NATO and the European Union.

Russia and Turkey have been tentatively moving to restore ties following more than six months of political crisis over Turkish jets' downing of a Russian bomber at the Syrian border.

Turkey is a NATO ally and a candidate for EU membership but it has come under mounting Western criticism recently over an ongoing purge following the July 15-16 failed coup. 

Cavusoglu lamented comments by the head of US national intelligence that the purge was harming cooperation in the purported fight against Daesh terrorists.

"If they (the Americans) ask whether the fight against Daesh has been weakened due to the army purge, we say that, on the contrary, when the army has been cleansed...it becomes more trustworthy, clean and effective in the fight," he said. 

Turkish authorities have detained, suspended or placed under probe tens of thousands of people in state institutions, universities, the military, media and other sectors since the failed coup. 

Those targeted are suspected of links to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric who is accused by Ankara of masterminding the putsch.

Prosecutor indicts CIA, FBI  

On Thursday, a Turkish prosecutor filed an indictment against Gulen, alleging that the CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US helped train members of his movement to plot the coup.

"The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provided training in several subjects to the cadre belonging to the Gulen movement," the indictment was quoted as saying.

The indictment, filed in the northwestern city of Edirne and reported by the state-run Anadolu news agency, claims that the CIA and the FBI provided training at "cultural centers" to Gulen's followers.

Turkey is demanding that the US extradite Gulen but Washington has called for solid proof about his alleged role in the coup before deporting him.  

Accusations of US role in coup 

Rumors that Washington somehow had a hand in the coup planning circulated right after the putsch. Labor Minister Suleyman Soylu was the most high-profile state official to accuse the US of playing a role in the coup attempt. 

The chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff Gen Joseph F. Dunford had to reject as "absurd" claims that General John Campbell - the former US-led coalition commander in Afghanistan - was a coup plotter.

The Yeni Safak newspaper, considered close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made the allegation in a piece titled "US Commander Campbell: The man behind the failed coup in Turkey." 

The paper claimed that the US general ran two billion dollars through a Nigerian bank account to fund the putsch.

Protest outside Incirlik 

Turkey has the second biggest army in NATO after the US. The country contributes soldiers to the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the US has a shared airbase in Incirlik in southern Turkey, where an unknown number of nuclear weapons are stored and the base is also used to launch airstrikes and other missions in the region.  

On Thursday, a group of protesters rallied outside the military base in Adana, demanding its closure. 

Some of the demonstrators alleged that the base was used in the coup attempt. The protesters, numbering over 1,000, chanted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans, according to media report.

The commander of the airbase General Bekir Ercan Van was detained by Turkish authorities and accused of having a connection to July's failed military coup, along with over a dozen lower ranking officers.

Turkish prosecutors and police also searched the facilities following the coup attempt.

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