According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s support for the Palestinian group Hamas does not pose a problem for NATO.
“It is never easy when we have different opinions within the alliance,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with the DPA news agency.
However, the NATO Secretary General added that this does not affect the operation of NATO in any way, as the alliance is not involved in this conflict.
After Hamas and other terrorist groups brutally attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,400 people, Erdogan called Hamas a liberation group. The United States and the European Union (EU), which is Turkey’s ally in NATO, consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
Erdogan has cut ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in the Gaza Strip. “Netanyahu is no longer our interlocutor in any sense. We have written him off,” Erdogan said.
The Turkish president has previously called Israel a terrorist state and has repeatedly presented himself as a defender of the Palestinian cause. He has lambasted Israel for the high civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip.
NATO allies have hardly criticized Erdogan for such a stance, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who will host Erdogan in Berlin next week.
Stoltenberg rejected speculations that the silence of NATO members could be related to the ongoing process in Turkey for Sweden’s admission to NATO.
Sweden’s membership must be approved by all 31 NATO allies. Turkey and Hungary have not yet done so.
“These are two completely separate issues,” Stoltenberg stressed.
2023-11-10 17:13:38
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