The US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen blamed by Turkey for orchestrating a failed coup this month is a pawn backed by a "mastermind", President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, hinting that greater powers were behind the attempted putsch.

Erdogan often refers to a "mastermind" in his speeches, a reference widely seen as an allusion to the West in general and the United States more specifically.

The cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in the self-imposed exile in the United States for years, has denied any involvement in the failed coup of July 15-16.

Conspiracy theories have flourished in Turkey since the attempted coup, with one pro-government newspaper saying the putsch was financed by the Central Intelligence Agency and directed by a retired US army general using a cell phone in Afghanistan.

The United States has denied any involvement and any prior knowledge of the failed attempt to overthrow the government.

Erdogan also issued a new presidential decree Sunday that introduced sweeping reforms to Turkey's military in the wake of the failed coup, bringing the Turkish armed forces further under civilian authority.

The decree, the third to have been issued after a three-month state of emergency was declared following the attempted coup, gives the president and prime minister the authority to issue direct orders to the commanders of the army, air force and navy.

It also announces the discharge of 1,389 military personnel, including Erdogan's chief military adviser who had been arrested days after the attempted putsch, the Chief of General Staff's charge d'affaires and the defense minister's chief secretary.

It puts the force commands directly under the defense ministry, puts all military hospitals under the authority of the health ministry instead of the military, and also expands the Supreme Military Council, the body which makes decisions on military affairs and appointments, to include the deputy prime ministers and the justice, foreign and interior ministers.

The document, published in the official gazette Sunday, also shuts down all military schools, academies and non-commissioned officer training institutes and establishes a new national defense university to train officers.

In an interview with private A Haber television Saturday, Erdogan said he also wanted to put the country's intelligence agency MIT and the chief of general staff's headquarters under the presidency.

"If we can pass this small constitution package with (the opposition parties), then the chief of general staff and MIT will be tied to the president," Erdogan told A Haber. The package would need to be brought to parliament for a vote.