A senior Turkish minister has rekindled accusations of US involvement in the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey even as Ankara is trying to mollify Washington over its purchase of Russian missiles and avoid more sanctions under President Joe Biden. Fence-mending remains a distant goal with the Turkish public still largely convinced that Washington was behind the putsch.

Rogue officers accused of having links to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, an ally-turned-foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, commandeered warplanes and tanks July 15, 2016, in a bid to topple the government. Some 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 wounded before the government suppressed the uprising the following day. Squabbles over the coup, coupled with US support for Syrian Kurdish militias seen as terrorists by Ankara, opened a major rift between the two NATO allies, leading Turkey to move closer to Russia. Ankara has repeatedly criticized Washington for failing to extradite Gulen, having designated his extensive network of followers as a terrorist group, known by the acronym FETO.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu rekindled the spat in early February, just as Ankara was making overtures to the Biden administration, which is expected to be tougher on Turkey than its predecessor. “It’s plain as day that America was behind the July 15 coup attempt. FETO carried it out at their behest,” Soylu told Hurriyet. “Since I became interior minister [in September 2016], I’ve seen FETO's presence wherever America is influential,” he said.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price promptly rejected Soylu’s allegations as “wholly false.” Such “unfounded and irresponsible claims of US responsibility for events in Turkey are inconsistent with Turkey’s status as a NATO ally and strategic partner of the United States,” he said.