Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Turkey has withdrawn 40 soldiers from a NATO military exercise in Norway, after the country’s founding leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Erdogan himself were allegedly depicted as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.”
NATO wasn’t immediately able to provide any information about the alleged incident.