MHP leader warns of alliances within NATO against Turkey

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on Oct. 19 accused a group of NATO members of creating alliances against Turkey.

“Greece is forming a front against Turkey by establishing alliances in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean,” he said at his party’s parliamentary group meeting, pointing at the fact that the neighboring country recently ramped up its armament.

He recalled that Greece increased the number of its warplanes this year and signed a defense cooperation agreement with France on Sept. 28.

“Isn’t this agreement a move against NATO’s principles?” he asked and said making armament deals within NATO is a message to Turkey.

“This is a sneaky and covert deal. How will the binding force of the provision expressed in Article 5 of NATO’s founding agreement be preserved?” he asked.

He recalled that the United States and Greece signed an agreement extending the bilateral defense cooperation agreement for another five years.

“I’m telling you frankly: A trench is being dug against Turkey within NATO. Turkey has been threatened. The U.S. Secretary of State defined Greece as the pillar of stability in the region. Greece is the face of disrepute and crisis politics that needs to be corrected and disciplined,” he said.

“When we look at the agreements with France, Greece and the U.S., it is understood that the Athens administration will follow even more hostile policies in the Aegean and Mediterranean,” he added.