Some 99 military top brass have been promoted in Turkey in an overhaul of the country’s armed forces following this month’s failed coup. <br /><br /> Many other men in uniform, accused of involvement in the uprising, have been dismissed or detained.<br /><br /> The man at the top of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ‘wanted list’ is the US-based cleric Ankara claims masterminded the coup attempt.<br /><br /> And with no sign yet of the United States extraditing the Muslim preacher and scholar Fethullah Gulen, who denies any involvement, Erdogan lashed out at Washington and the West.<br /><br /> “Instead of saying ‘thank you’ to this state which repelled the coup’d‘état – ‘thank you’ in the name of democracy – you are standing next to the coup plotters. What is more the plotter of this coup is in your country,” said Erdogan on Friday in Ankara.<br /><br /> US general is on side of coup plotters: Erdoğan https://t.co/ra4io4Qjj5 pic.twitter.com/KIPALtoghL— Hürriyet Daily News (@HDNER) 29 juillet 2016<br /><br /> Erdogan’s fury has been stoked by suggestions from US intelligence officials that purges in the Turkish military are harming cooperation in the fight against ISIL. <br /><br /> Not so, insists Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who shrugged off the concerns, telling reporters on Friday that Turkey’s armed forces, “cleansed” of their Gulenist elements, would prove more “trustworthy … and effective” allies against so-called Islamic State.<br /><br /> Cavusoglu also denounced European countries for trying ‘to give us lessons in democracy”.<br />
