 On 31 January 2017, British Minister of State for Europe and the Americas, Alan Duncan said he believed the Gülen movement was responsible for the coup attempt.Duncan went on saying "the organization which incorporated itself into the state tried to topple the democratic structure in Turkey".In a speech on 29 July 2016, President Erdoğan said U.S. Central Command chief Joseph Votel was "siding with coup plotters"; Erdoğan said the United States was protecting Fethullah Gülen, whom the Turkish government blames for the coup attempt.