North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) vowed strong support for Turkey’s fight against “terrorism” at an emergency meeting on Tuesday called to discuss Ankara’s strikes against the self-styled Islamic State (IS) and Kurdish rebels.
The rare talks came as an uncompromising President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara could not continue its peace process with the Kurds amid fresh attacks on Turkish targets.
Turkey’s decision to lump IS together with Kurdish forces who bitterly oppose the jihadist group has surprised some Western allies, but the message on Tuesday was united behind the alliance’s only Muslim member.
“All allies expressed their strong support for Turkey and we all stand together in solidarity with Turkey. We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said after the meeting of the alliance’s ambassadors in Brussels.
Stoltenberg said Turkey had not requested any military help, it has the second largest armed forces in NATO after the United States, and he welcomed its increased effort against the IS group.
Turkey requested the meeting of all 28 NATO nations after a devastating suicide bombing blamed on IS militants in the largely Kurdish border town of Suruc last week killed 32 people.
Once-reluctant Ankara has since launched attacks against IS targets in Syria and Kurd positions in northern Iraq, despite the fact that Kurdish forces have had some of the biggest military successes against the jihadists.
Turkey has also agreed with the United States to create an “IS-free zone “in northern Syria and dropped its previous refusal to let US aircraft use its strategic Incirlik airbase to launch attacks on the jihadists.
