ANKARA

The aim of the defeated July 15 coup was to cause a civil war in Turkey as a prelude to foreign occupation, the country's deputy prime minister said Thursday.

"Their [coup-plotters’] aim was not only changing the administration but also dragging Turkey into a civil war with this change of administration and then making Turkey ready for external occupation," Numan Kurtulmus told reporters at the Cankaya Palace.

Kurtulmus said that the coup attempt was done by people who do not want to see a powerful, leading Turkey in the Islamic world.

"Those who could not stop Turkey with these terrorist attacks, this terrorist organization called FETO, with this man who has an insane and deviant religious belief and the gang around him, will try to stop Turkey with the PKK terrorist organization and other terrorist organizations. None of them will be able to do that, the mastermind behind them also will not be able to do that," he said.

Kurtulmus also criticized Western countries for their silence in the face of the coup-plotters.

"Turkish democracy, which was interrupted five times through coups and experienced attempts to derail it seven or eight times through failed coup attempts during 66 years of multiparty political life, and the Turkish nation that protected this democracy, expect a clear stance against the coup from all its friends and whoever calls themselves friends," he said.

"Those who could not maintain this stance have to be in solidarity with Turkish nation in the future," Kurtulmus added.

Kurtulmus said the nature of the coup and terrorism are no different.

"The coup plotters want to abolish the national will through force of arms. What do the terrorists want to do? The terrorists also want to take control of the national will. Thus, there is no difference between the terrorists, coup-plotters, FETO, Daesh, and PKK," he added.

Turkey's government has said the July 15 coup attempt, which left 240 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured, was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his FETO network.

Gulen is accused of leading a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.

* Tutku Umac contributed to this story from Ankara.