Civil war: Turkey is in big danger if US was behind coup attempt, MHP leader says

DEFENSE AND TECHNOLOGY -- Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has responded to rumors about alleged U.S. involvement in the July 15 failed coup attempt in Turkey, saying “the problem is serious” if the Pentagon or the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was behind the plot.

“Rumors say that an ISAF commander U.S. general was behind the FETÖ coup attempt,” Bahçeli said, while addressing his party deputies in Ankara on July 26. The ISAF is the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, while FETÖ is an abbreviation used for the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization, which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) says was behind the July 15 failed coup attempt.

“It is said that this U.S. person secretly came to Turkey twice before July 15 and had meetings full of secrets in [the eastern province of] Erzurum and the [southern province of] Adana’s İncirlik Air Base. If these claims are true, which means if the CIA and Pentagon are behind these traitors, this means that we are facing a very serious problem and the U.S. will not be able to overcome this,” he said.

If the U.S. had any involvement in the matter via the Incirlik Air Base, from where it has been conducting operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria, the alliance between Washington and Ankara will be majorly damaged, the MHP leader said.

“This means that the U.S. and the global centers of power are planning to drag Turkey into civil war,” he said.

Several top U.S. officials have strictly ruled out any involvement by Washington. U.S. Ambassador to Ankara John Bass said the U.S. had no prior knowledge or indication about the coup attempt and described allegations that Washington was in cooperation with the plotters to overthrow the Turkish government as “outrageous.”

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