ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says that the failure of last month’s coup attempt showed the strength of Turkey’s leadership and that the country has embarked on a process of reform and reconciliation to maintain this strength while calling on the Syrian president to step down and allow for a political transition.

Cavusoglu told the pan-Arabic Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Friday: “Of course, we will be fighting this terrorist organization (Fethullah Gulen’s group) as well as others like ISIS and PKK. But meanwhile we will continue to reform Turkey. There is a normalization process in the country and also a reconciliation; parties may have different ideologies but this is democracy and that’s why we have different parties in the parliament,”

Cavusoglu said that Ankara received no support from its Western allies during the coup other than a few words about Turkish democracy followed by criticism of how Turkey dealt with the coup’s aftermath.

He defended the actions of the government in dealing with the coup plotters, saying, “Shall we let them stay in the military, judiciary and other state institutions to carry out another attempt? Our obligation is to enhance public order; otherwise this nation will never forgive us.”

The Turkish foreign minister said in the Asharq Al-Awsat interview that Ankara welcomed constructive criticism from its European friends but rejected any threats.

He said: “If our EU friends visit us and give constructive criticism then they are more than welcome. But without any dialogue, making such statements, preaching Turkey or threatening it, this attitude will be rejected. They are not our leaders, they have to understand this,”

Cavusoglu said that in contrast to the lukewarm sympathy from Europe, Turkey had received “firm support from many Arab countries and particularly from Saudi Arabia,”

Cavusoglu went on to say that Ankara has not accused the United States of involvement in the coup, but Washington refusing to extradite Gulen will feed the perception that they might have been behind it.

“We asked the U.S. to expatriate him to Turkey, in its turn, the U.S. asked for evidence that proves he is behind the coup and we are working on this. As politicians, we never said that the U.S. or somebody else is behind the coup attempt, we never take these kinds of rumors seriously. But this perception will remain in Turkey as long as the U.S. doesn’t expatriate Gulen.” Cavusoglu said.

The foreign minister said that Ankara was trying to restore relations with Moscow to where they were at before the incident of the Russian fighter jet.

He said: “Regarding Assad, we believe he should leave as soon as possible. There can’t be a real transition with Assad, but Russians think otherwise. We asked Russia once again to focus on ISIS and terrorist organizations and to resume the talks in Geneva,”

Cavusoglu stressed that despite the warming of relations with Russia, Turkey’s stance on Assad has and will remain the same, saying: “We support political transition, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state. We need to eradicate the terrorist organizations on the ground. Our stance on Assad will not change because our approach is realistic and not personal; he killed more than 600,000 people.”