Halifax Forum apologizes to top Turkish soldier over photo

ANKARA

The Halifax Forum has apologized to Turkey’s Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar for using a controversial photo of him during an event.

"We are sorry for any misunderstanding and inconvenience caused by the photograph that we used from the internet to introduce General AKAR,” it said on its official Twitter account on Nov. 21.

Akar delivered a speech at the 9th Halifax International Security Forum in Canada on Nov. 20. But before his speech, a photo of him taken just after the July 15, 2016, coup attempt was used at the event. It was a photograph of him with a belt mark on his throat. Akar was reportedly injured on the night of the coup attempt with a belt cinched around his neck.

On Nov. 17, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) members in the capital Ankara that Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was in a “hostile leaders list” during a NATO drill in Norway.

Turkey withdrew from the Trident Javelin exercise in which a civilian Norwegian official also depicted Erdoğan as an “enemy collaborator.”