Turkish lawyer accuses U.S. generals of aiding coup attempt

ISTANBUL — Barely a day after the Pentagon’s top official arrived in Turkey in a bid to cool growing tensions between Ankara and Washington, a Turkish lawyer filed a criminal complaint against him and two other senior U.S. officials.

It accused Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Votel, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, and National Intelligence Director James Clapper of conspiring with the plotters behind the failed July 15 coup attempt, which ended only after a rebellious faction of the military had bombed parliament and turned the weapons on civilian protesters in Istanbul and Ankara.

Local media reports identify the lawyer as Mert Yilmaz and say that part of the evidence Yilmaz presents against the American officials includes the White House’s supposedly delayed condemnation of the coup plot as well as the presence of pro-coup commentary on American TV outlets such as Fox News.

While it’s unclear whether prosecutors in Ankara will take on the case, it’s a sign of the heated atmospherics surrounding U.S.-Turkish relations since last month.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials in the government pin the blame for the coup on Fethullah Gulen, an imam living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania who presides over a vast network of schools, charities and businesses worldwide. Gulen’s critics say his supporters — dubbed “Gulenists” — have infiltrated various institutions, including the military, and were simply biding their time to strike.