The U.S State Department rejects Soylu’s accusations
"Any suggestion that the U.S. government is participating in or supporting efforts to stir up trouble in Turkey is false," a U.S. State Department spokesman said Friday after Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu called on the U.S. to "take its dirty hands out of Turkey"
The spokesman, who provided VOA Turkish with a written statement on Soylu's words, said Turkey is a long-standing and valuable NATO ally and security partner of the United States.
The spokesperson said:
"For the U.S. State Department, there is no higher priority than the security of U.S. citizens abroad. U.S. embassies and consulates abroad issue alerts to inform U.S. citizens in real time of specific events and changes in the region. This is done regardless of bilateral political or economic considerations.”
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu on Friday said that the primary concern for every ambassador of the United States to Turkey has been "staging a coup d'etat" and "inflicting harm" on the country.
" The American ambassadors, they sit down and design everything. They thought they would be able to design Turkey too, but a man, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spoiled their game," he said.
The ambassadors of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK were also summoned to the Foreign Ministry, have been summoned on Thursday to the foreign ministry and criticized their decision to temporarily shut diplomatic missions and issue security alerts following recent burnings in Europe of Islam's holy book the Quran.