France questions Turkish commitment to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Nov 30, 2019
After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that French leader Emmanuel Macron should be checked for "brain death", Ankara's ambassador in Paris will now reportedly have to explain the "insult" at the Foreign Ministry there.
"I'm addressing Mr Macron from Turkey and I will say it at NATO: You should check whether you are brain dead first", Erdogan said.
The German government says the leaders of Turkey, Britain, Germany and France will meet to discuss the situation in Syria before a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in London opens next week. Articles appear on euronews.com for a limited time.
Apart from the USA administration, French counterparts also criticized Turkey for the same.
Macron set the ball rolling for a fractious gathering by describing the club in a November 7 interview with The Economist magazine as suffering from "brain death".
Ankara views the YPG as an offshoot of the Kurdish PKK, which has fought an insurgency inside Turkey for the past 35 years and is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.
We are not against NATO's plans for the Baltic nations, but North Atlantic Treaty Organisation should also want for Turkey what it wants for the Baltics.
"I spoke with President Trump just a few moments ago, and I know the president is very grateful for President Erdogan's willingness to step forward to enact this ceasefire and give an opportunity for a peaceful solution of this conflict that commenced one week ago", Pence stated.
Turkey on October 9 launched the "Operation Peace Spring" targeting Kurdish forces in Northern Syria with the stated objective of creating a safe zone in which to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.
Erdogan said Ankara had a right to intervene in Syria given their shared border. "That is why yellow vests invaded France", he added, in a swipe over the protests that badly rattled Macron's government past year.
Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters that Mr macron want to become a European leader but "wobbling". "The leadership comes naturally with qualifications and policies".
Sarkozy drew Turkey's ire by opposing Turkey's Turkey EU membership ambitions.
