Turkey defends military purges

The Turkish government said Friday that Washington has it backwards when it suggests ongoing purges of the military is harming military cooperation against "Islamic State" ("IS").

That follows a speech by US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper at a security forum where he complained that Turkey's cooperation as a NATO ally in the fight against IS in Syria and Iraq was suffering because of the ongoing purges.

"Many of our interlocutors have been purged or arrested. There's no question this is going to set back and make more difficult cooperation with the Turks," Clapper said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

"It's having an effect because it has affected all segments of the national security apparatus in Turkey," Clapper added.

But Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu fired back Friday that just the opposite was true.

"If they ask whether the fight against Daesh (Islamic State) 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," Cavusoglu told reporters.

Turkey a crucial ally in operations against 'Islamic State'

Turkey has been purging civil servants at all levels - including the military - following the July 15-16 coup. Ankara blames supporters of a US-based Muslim cleric it accuses of being the mastermind of the attempted putsch.

Meanwhile, Cavusoglu has tried to play down Western concerns about a tentative rapprochement between Turkey and Russia following a period of strain, saying relations with Moscow were not an alternative to NATO and the European Union.

CNN Turk has reported that more than 15,000 people, including around 10,000 soldiers, have been detained so far over the coup. Of those, more than 8,000 were formally arrested pending trial.

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