Turkey has withdrawn 40 soldiers from a NATO military exercise in Norway, after the country’s founding leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were allegedly depicted as “enemies.”
In an address to his ruling party’s provincial leaders on Friday, Erdogan said his and Ataturk’s names were placed on a “table” listing “enemies” during the NATO drills. He said he had personally instructed the immediate withdrawal of the Turkish troops “even if those names are removed” from the table.
The Turkish leader said of the NATO alliance: "There can be no such pact, no such alliance," the New York Times reported.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has apologised to Turkey after the country's leaders were allegedly depicted as "enemies" in a joint military exercise.
Stoltenberg said in the statement that the incident which happened during a recently concluded exercise at NATO's Joint Warfare Center in Stavanger was "the result of an individual's actions and did not reflect the NATO's views."
