NATO chief says drill incident will not happen again

By Hasan Esen

BRUSSELS

The NATO chief has reassured Turkey that the incident involving a civilian Norwegian official who depicted the Turkish leader as an "enemy collaborator" during an exercise in Norway would not happen again.

Speaking in a news conference in Brussels on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recalled that he had apologized over the phone to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"I'm now also looking into the procedures to make sure that something like this not to happen again," he said

Last week, Turkey withdrew its 40 soldiers from NATO's Trident Javelin exercise in Norway after a civilian Norwegian official depicted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as an "enemy collaborator".

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

"I also met with the Chief of the General Staff Gen. [Hulusi] Akar and the Minister for EU Affairs [Omer Celik] in Halifax this weekend. I expressed my apologies to both of them for the offences caused, but also reassured them that our military authorities are now looking into how to make sure something similar does not happen in the future," he added.

The NATO chief also said Turkey was an important ally for NATO adding that: "Turkey is contributing to the alliance in many different ways, in the fight against terrorism bordering Iraq and Syria."

"So we highly value the contributions of Turkey to the alliance and therefore we have to make sure that instances like this do not occur again," Stoltenberg said.