Soylu has suspended joint training programs between Turkish and American police forces, denied early US access to Turkish police intelligence on suspects, and refused to share information regarding ongoing Turkish investigations with American counterparts, a Turkish official told MEE.

Turkey-US relations have been in decline over a range of issues such as US President Joe Biden’s naming the 1.5 million massacre of Armenians in 1915 “genocide,” Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system, Turkey’s removal from the F-35 fighter project, US support for the YPG in Syria, the country’s human rights record and an ongoing US court case targeting Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank for evading Iran sanctions.

Soylu’s move seems, nonetheless, out of step with previous discussions among Turkey and the US on security issues, in which cooperation was emphasized. Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin held a phone call on April 1, discussing regional security and bilateral defense cooperation. They agreed to cooperate on resolving the issues raised by Turkey’s expulsion from the F-35 project, and on the US support for the YPG in Syria.

However there is personal animosity between Soylu and Washington. In 2018, the Trump administration temporarily sanctioned Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul over the arrest and detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a US citizen.

The following year, the US again sanctioned Soylu and other Turkish officials over Turkey’s offensive against US-backed Kurds in northeastern Syria. “There hasn't been any change in my declaration of property since the last sanction,” he joked at the time.

"I don’t have any property in the US,” the Middle East Eye reported.

Both designations have been short-term and later lifted. Soylu has, however, continued his attacks on Washington, repeating those previously reported.

“FETO was not the only actor behind July 15, the U.S. was also behind it,” Soylu said in a statement reported by the Daily Sabah newspaper. Soylu said FETO carried out the coup based on the instructions of the U.S.

“It is clearly evident that the U.S. was behind July 15,” Soylu said, adding that he had made this statement a day after the coup attempt.

“We learned that the U.S. was behind the 1960 coup as well years after the military takeover after reading British documents.”

The U.S. state department has denied any involvement, calling these statements “wholly false.”

Soylu on Wednesday also revealed that he didn’t grant a meeting with the US ambassador to Turkey, David Satterfield, even though the embassy was insistent, Rudaw.net reported. “I won’t award him any appointment. I would only do it if they begin to show respect to this country,’” he said.

Soylu has recently been under pressure from the opposition parties to resign.

For the past three weeks, videos have been posted on YouTube by Sedat Peker, an underworld mobster exiled abroad, in which he accuses members of the government and the ruling AKP party of corruption and various crimes.

In one video, Peker notably accuses Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu of offering him protection and tipping him off about an impending investigation against him last year, allowing him to flee Turkey before being arrested.

Soylu has strongly denied all of these allegations.

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