Europe Against Turkey

Europe Against Turkey

NATO's Secretary-General Mr. Jens Stoltenberg urged the countries of Austria and Turkey on Friday, March 10, 2017 to resolve a diplomatic dispute.

Turkey, a NATO ally, has withdrawn from some alliance participation - mostly military training - saying the move is aimed only at Austria.

"It is a very unfortunate situation and it means some cooperation programs can't be launched," Stoltenberg told reporters during a visit to the Danish capital city of Copenhagen.

Austria, which is not a NATO member but cooperates with the alliance, led calls last year to halt Turkey's European Union accession talks.  The capital of Austria, Vienna has also spoken out against Turkish politicians holding rallies in European countries.

"It's a bilateral situation between Turkey and Austria and we strongly urge them to solve it, so that it won't have negative consequences for the cooperation," Mr. Stoltenberg said.

The diplomatic tensions predate a current escalation with other European countries like Germany and Netherlands but as fellow NATO members Turkey cannot block cooperation with them.

Turkish President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has compared Germany and the Netherlands to fascists and Nazis for stopping Turkish politicians from rallying to promote a referendum granting him sweeping new powers.  Mr. Erdogan on Thursday said Dutch Prime Minister Mr. Mark Rutte had lost the friendship of Ankara (capital city of Turkey) after the diplomatic row.   

NATO officials told Reuters that the blocking also affected other countries that cooperate with the alliance but are not members.  Separately, Austrian tabloid newspaper Oesterreich said its website was brought down on Friday morning by a cyber attack "from Turkey", the latest in a series of similar incidents that appear to be connected to Vienna's spat with Ankara.

Let us monitor this situation between Europe and Turkey. 

Thank you for reading,

Ben here.