Istanbul: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday urged the European Union and West to step up backing of Ankara’s fight against Kurdish militants, as he addressed a meeting of Nato lawmakers.
Erdogan said he expected the support of Nato countries in Turkey’s fight against “all terror groups” including the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Islamic State (IS) jihadists and the group blamed by Ankara for the failed July 15 coup.
He called on the European Union to tighten its approach to the PKK, which Brussels designates as a terror group but whose members, according to Erdogan, are allowed to roam freely within the bloc.
“Those who have a hesitant attitude against terrorist organisations will be hit themselves sooner or later,” he said in a speech to deputies at the Nato Parliamentary Assembly.
Erdogan had at the weekend mooted that Turkey could join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a loose security and economic bloc led by Russia and China sometimes seen as an eastern counterpart to Nato. But he did not refer to this in his speech in Istanbul to the Nato meeting.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg hailed Turkish democracy Monday during a Nato meeting in Istanbul just four months after the July 15 coup attempt that martyred 248 and wounded more than 2,000.
“I would just also remind us all of the fact that we are meeting here in Turkey four shorts months after the failed coup attempt,” Nato Secretary- General Jens Stoltenberg told the 62nd session of the alliance’s Parliamentary Assembly.
“This should be a sober reminder to us all, a reminder that democracy and freedom cannot be taken for granted,” he added.
“In September, I visited the Grand National Assembly in Ankara which had been shelled by tanks and bombed by F16. I saw the damage that was done and I met members of the parliament from all major political parties. They rushed to the parliament on the night of the coup attempt and stood together in defense of their democratic institutions,” Stoltenberg said.
“I want to salute them today for their courage and dedication to democracy,” he added. Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, said that democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law are core Nato values.
“The important thing is that given that we all represent different nations and different political parties, we again and again have proven that we are able to stand together in the alliance on the main message of collective defense and the will to defend each other,” he said.
“That was exactly what we did in Warsaw and we decided to strengthen our collective defense in response to Russia’s aggressive actions in Ukraine and ongoing military buildup of Russia,” he added.
This July, the leaders of 28 Nato member states decided to bolster collective defense amid concerns over Russia and threats by non-state actors. - ‘Nato stands together as one’ Saying that Nato has taken necessary steps, Stoltenberg added: “We are increasing our defensive presence in the eastern part of the alliance, including the deployment of four multinational battalions to the Baltic States and Poland.
“Earlier this year Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States each committed to lead one of those battalions, and I want to thank those nations for their leadership. I also want to express my appreciation to the 13 other alliances that have pledged to join for those forces. “Our preparations for the four battalions are on the truck. We expect to deploy all four battalions in early 2017,” he said.
