Istanbul, Aug 3 (IANS) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the West on Tuesday of supporting terrorism and those who tried to carry out the coup d'etat in Turkey on July 15.
During a speech delivered before several international investors, Erdogan said, "Now I ask: Does the West give support to terror or not? Is the West on the side of democracy or on the side of coups and terror? Unfortunately, the West gives support to terror and stands on the side of coups."
"We have not received the support we were expecting from our friends, neither during nor after the coup attempt," EFE news quoted the President as saying.
Erdogan also regretted that no Western leader had come to Turkey to express condolences with the Turkish people and said, "It's sufficient to look at the statements issued during and after the coup to see this."
Furthermore, he said all available evidence shows that the mastermind of the coup was Islamist preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is in exile in the United States, and who has dismissed any links between him and the failed military coup.
