Erdoğan calls on NATO to show more effort on issues effecting Turkey’s security

ISTANBUL- Anadolu Agency

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on NATO to put more effort into combating developments that especially affect Turkey’s security, while also urging the organization to be more active and up-to-date amid the rapidly changing nature of security threats.

“We expect NATO to show much more effort in the face of developments that negatively impact Turkey’s security,” said Erdoğan on July 7 at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport before leaving for a NATO summit in Poland.

“The refugee crisis and migratory movements are affecting the whole world. Cyberattacks, epidemics and regional instability are being reflected even in geographically-isolated countries,” he said. 

“The nature of security threat concepts is undergoing drastic changes. During this process, NATO needs to be more active and update itself in the face of these new threats,” he added.        

The Turkish president said leaders would discuss strengthening NATO’s defense and deterrence structure, among other subjects at the two-day Warsaw summit. 

He also said the summit came at a very critical time, days after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist organization killed hundreds in Istanbul, Baghdad, and Medina.

“As we can see, international security is becoming more fragile,” he said.  
    
Erdoğan noted this was not a local problem affecting only some Middle Eastern and North African countries. “On the contrary, all regions and all countries are being influenced,” he said, calling it “an issue of global dimensions.” 

He said the recent attacks carried out in France, Belgium, Tunisia, and the U.S. showed that no matter how developed a country was, it could not avoid the issue.        

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described the world as “a more dangerous place than just a few years ago,” while speaking in Warsaw at a joint news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda. 

“And NATO is responding with speed and with determination,” he added, noting that the size of NATO’s response force had been tripled.

“Tomorrow [July 8] and on Saturday [July 9] we will take new major steps to further modernize our collective defense and deterrence and to project stability beyond our borders,” Stoltenberg said.