Turkey demands ‘full solidarity’ from NATO allies: Turkish envoy

BRUSSELS

Ankara demands “full solidarity” from its allies in the fight against terrorism, Turkey’s Permanent Representative to NATO Fatih Ceylan has said.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency ahead of the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, Ceylan noted that Turkey has been faced with multilateral terror threats from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C), and the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO), calling on Ankara’s NATO allies to act “in full solidarity, unity and integrity.”

The envoy said the NATO meeting on Dec. 5 and Dec. 6 would “provide an additional platform and opportunity for us to express our sensitivities with regard to the fight against terrorism.”

The Brussels meeting will focus on NATO-EU relations, NATO-Georgia relations, North Korea, Russia, and the fight against terrorism, Ceylan noted, adding that Turkey supports “the improvement of NATO-EU cooperation to strengthen security against common threats.”

NATO recently re-shaped its command structure, while the EU’s 23 states last month signed a key defense pact increasing cooperation on security.