Turkey is not considering severing ties with NATO after the drill incident in Norway, Turkish Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said.
But he stressed that an incident where the names of the Turkish Republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and current president Recep Tayyp Erdogan were used in an “enemy chart” should be investigated carefully.
Referring to the drill incident in Norway, which led Turkey to withdraw its troops, Kalın said Turkey’s participation in NATO dates back more than 50 years, adding, “This is one incident, but of course we are a strong ally in NATO and we participated in many exercises.”
"Obviously, it is completely unacceptable to do this to any country, especially for our founding President Atatürk and our current president, and expect Turkey not to react to it. That’s not possible," Kalın said.
"Of course, this incident has to be studied, investigated very, very carefully - who did it, who put those pictures in there, etcetera," Hurriyet Daily cited him as saying.
