NATO must address concerns of all its allies: Turkish FM

ANKARA

NATO should address the concerns of all the members of the alliance, as Turkey deserves the consideration other regions get, said Turkey’s foreign minister on Nov. 28.

“NATO must act in a way that will meet the concerns of all allies. What is wanted for the Baltics should be wanted for us too,” Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said at a press conference with Masrour Barzani, the visiting prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).

Talks are ongoing to solve the dispute, the minister said and added: “Secretary General [of NATO] has made some proposals. We’re negotiating.”

Turkey would like to take some steps on these issues before the NATO leaders meeting in December he stated. “There may be different opinions. The important thing is to find the middle course. We are in this effort,” Çavuşoğlu said.

Turkey has refused a NATO defense plan for the Baltics and Poland after some alliance members, including the United States, blocked another defense document in which the YPG was mentioned as a threat to Turkey.

The North Atlantic Council (NAC), the principal political decision-making body within NATO, prepared a document on possible threats posed to the south of the alliance at a meeting of the body in Ankara. The document noted the YPG as a security threat to Turkey. However, the release of the defense document was rejected by some NATO members including the U.S.

Turkey, in retaliation, refused the release of a NATO defense plan for the Baltics and Poland until the alliance paves the way for the prior document.

Çavuşoğlu said the approval of the YPG as a threat, would put the U.S. in difficulty in legal terms as Washington provided support to the group, with more than 30,000 trucks of arms.