NATO has proclaimed its “strong solidarity” with Turkey following a rare emergency meeting to assess the threat posed by Daesh extremist group
Members also urged Turkey not to use excessive force in the fight against extremists, a Nato official said.
“The security of the alliance is indivisible,” ambassadors from all 28 nations declared in a joint statement after the meeting.
They condemned recent terror attacks in Turkey and called terrorism “a global threat that knows no border, nationality, or religion – a challenge that the international community must fight and tackle together”.
While public statements stressed Nato unity, the official said members also used the closed-door meeting to call on Turkey not to use undue force and to continue peace efforts with representatives of the Kurdish minority.
As the ambassadors were gathering at Nato headquarters, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara it was impossible to advance a peace process with the Kurds as long as attacks on Turkey continue.
The special session of the alliance’s main political decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, was held at Turkey’s request under a clause of Nato’s founding treaty that empowers member countries to seek consultations if they believe their security, territorial integrity or political independence is at risk.
It was just the fifth such meeting in Nato’s 66-year history.
“All allies stand in solidarity with Turkey,” alliance secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters after the session, which lasted a little over an hour.
Stoltenberg said the Turks did not use the meeting to request military assistance from other Nato members.
Amanda Paul, a senior policy analyst and specialist on Turkey at the European Policy Centre, said: “I think the main purpose is to give them some reassurance in terms of their bombing campaign in Syria and northern Iraq so that they won’t be accused of violating international law.”
Recently, a Daesh group suicide bombing near Turkey’s border with Syria left 32 people dead and another attack on Turkish forces killed a soldier. Turkey said a second soldier died today after he was shot in the head by a Kurdish militant.
After months of reluctance, Turkish warplanes last week started striking militant targets in Syria and Turkey’s leaders agreed to allow the US to launch its own strikes from Turkey’s Incirlik airbase.
But in a series of cross-border strikes, Turkey has not only targeted IS but also Kurdish fighters affiliated with forces battling the group in Syria and Iraq.
On Monday, Syria’s main Kurdish militia and an activist group said Turkish troops shelled a Syrian village near the border, targeting Kurdish fighters.
In the battle against IS, the Syrian Kurds have been among the most effective ground forces and have been backed by US-led airstrikes, but Turkey fears a revival of the Kurdish insurgency in pursuit of an independent state.
Meanwhile Syrian government forces and a Kurdish militia have driven Daesh fighters out of Hasaka city in Syria’s far northeast, a month after the group attacked it, a group monitoring the four-year-old war said yesterday.
Hasaka is the capital of a province that borders territory held by Daesh in Iraq.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes were continuing in the city’s southern outskirts but that Hasaka itself was now free from Daesh fighters.
Daesh launched a major attack on the city on June 25, focusing initially on government-held territory south of Hasaka. The ensuing battle drew in the Kurdish YPG, which held north Hasaka, resulting in the US-backed Kurds fighting Daesh in close proximity to government forces shunned by Washington.
The Kurdish YPG militia has repeatedly said it does not coordinate with Syrian government forces against their shared enemy, Daesh. The Observatory said scores of Daesh fighters, government troops and allied pro-government militia had been killed since the June offensive began.
Last week a YPG spokesman said the militia was in near full control of the city, a statement at odds with Syrian state media reports of a strong performance by the military.
The government has been focussing on trying to shore up its control over big population centres in western Syria, but Hasaka is one of several areas where it has also sought to preserve control in recent fighting.
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