Turkey slams German daily over NATO summit accusations

ANKARA

The Turkish Foreign Ministry blasted on June 1 the German daily Die Welt over its accusations on May 31 that Turkey's recommendations to host a NATO summit in 2018 was rejected by several Alliance members.      

"Contrary to the claims of 'Die Welt', there is no such thing as the rejection of our proposal to host a NATO summit. Such unfounded news aims to create negative perceptions about our country," the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hüseyin Müftüoğlu said in a written statement.      

Müftüoğlusaid that he was "suprised" by the accusations claiming such countries as Germany, France, the Netherlands and Denmark had rejected the invitation made by of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the 2016 NATO Warsaw summit for one in Turkey in 2018.      

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said Erdoğan had repeatedly made known that Turkey was ready to host a NATO summit during meetings with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.      

Die Welt claqimed on May 31 that 18 EU nations as well as Canada had agreed to prevent the 2018 summit from taking place in Istanbul.      

Müftüoğlu said that during the Brussels meeting last week, no date or place had been decided for the 2018 summit.