Turkish opposition party leader criticizes NATO

By Sorwar Alam

ANKARA

Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli on Saturday termed the recent incident during NATO's drill in Norway as "a disgrace that cannot be fixed or compensated".

Turkey withdrew from the Trident Javelin exercise after a civilian Norwegian official depicted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as an "enemy collaborator" during a drill in Norway.

A portrait of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was also shown in the "hostile leader list" during a computer-assisted exercise.

Following the incident, NATO chief had apologized to Turkey in a written statement as well as to Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar in a face-to-face meeting in Canada.

On his official Twitter account, Bahceli said NATO’s attempts to portray this inferior scheme as a criminal offense caused by a "few freaks and low-ranking officials", and then to calm the situation with an apology were “futile and empty”.

“Apology! what apology! apology for what? The attempt for attrition, to open a debate or to blame the first president of the Republic of Turkey as well as the current president with a psychological warfare tactics is an evidence of open enmity,” he added.

MHP leader suggested Turkey should question NATO without wasting anymore time.

“It is necessary for Turkey to question NATO...,” he added.

“What does NATO want from Turkey? What is it waiting for? What does it hope to achieve?”

He said “NATO does not have the luxury of making mistakes”.

Turkey has now reached a point of “all or nothing” with the alliance, according to Bahceli.

“We are here when there was no NATO, and if it is necessary we cannot stay in this structure; it would not be the end of the world.”