NATO Baltics Deal Held Up as Turkey Seeks Support on Kurdish YPG
NATO Baltics Deal Held Up as Turkey Seeks Support on Kurdish YPG
(Bloomberg) -- Turkey isn’t against any NATO plans to defend Baltic states but wants the same solidarity to be shown to it in its fight against terrorist threats, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.
The remarks came after news reports suggested Turkey was holding up an agreement among members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for defense of Baltic states against any possible Russian aggression.
A Turkish official told Bloomberg earlier Thursday that Ankara is opposing NATO’s declaration of the Baltic plan because the U.S. stopped the alliance from releasing a similar document that defined the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG as a threat. Both plans were approved by the North Atlantic Council, known as NAC, but have yet to be made public, the person said, asking not to be identified in line with restrictions on Turkish civil servants.
The U.S. partnered with and armed the YPG to fight Islamic State in Syria, while Turkey regards both groups as terrorist organizations. The YPG issue has damaged relations between the U.S. and Turkey, holders of the two largest armies in NATO, and pushed Turkey to seek deeper military and diplomatic ties with Russia.
In response to reporters’ questions over the Baltic plan hold-up, Cavusoglu said Washington is finding it difficult to change course after a misguided policy that resulted in support for Syrian Kurdish militants.
To contact the reporter on this story: Firat Kozok in Ankara at fkozok@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net;Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net;Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net
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