The extraordinary meeting at the NATO headquarters on Tuesday is the fifth in the organisation’s 66-year history.
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The spike in violence in recent days has prompted concerns that a promising peace process between Turkey and Kurdish rebels is falling beyond fix. A safe zone north of Aleppo may open the way for rebel groups backed by Turkey to capture Syria’s largest city and former commercial center, which has been carved up between government and rebel-held areas since mid-2012. Turkish jets again hit PKK targets inside and outside Turkey on Sunday night and on Tuesday.
Hasaka is the capital of a strategically important province that borders territory held by Islamic State in Iraq.
The PKK has fought a decades-long insurgency in southeastern Turkey but maintains rear bases in northern Iraq. It has warned Ankara against military intervention in northern Syria.
Khalil, however, struck a diplomatic tone today, saying the Turkish plans were not a threat.
Many Kurds are concerned Turkey is using the war against IS as a pretext to limit advances by the YPG and to steer Washington away from it. Yesterday Turkey said a soldier was wounded in an attack along the border with Iraq. In response, the head of a Kurdish-led political party which gained influence in June’s election said that “we have committed no unforgivable crimes”.
Details of the zone “remain to be worked out”, said the official during a visit by US President Barack Obama to Ethiopia, adding that joint efforts would not include Turkey’s demand for the imposition of a no-fly zone.
“I also think it’s an absurd position for the United Kingdom to have to say we will strike Isis, but only in Iraq and not Syria“.
“All allies stand in solidarity with Turkey”, alliance secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters after the session, which lasted a little over an hour.
They condemned recent terror attacks in Turkey, and called terrorism “a global threat that knows no border, nationality, or religion – a challenge that the worldwide community must fight and tackle together”.
The foreign minister charged that the PKK was “taking advantage of the situation in the region, of the fact that Turkey has begun fighting Daesh (the Arab acronym for IS), and they have stepped up their attacks and terrorist activities in Turkey”. Under the deal, American fighter aircraft can be launched from the Turkish base at Incirlik, and Turkey will take on an increased role in the fight.
“It is not possible for us to continue the peace process with those who threaten our national unity and brotherhood”, Erdoğan said at the Ankara press conference, according to the Guardian.
On Monday, Turkish Prime Minster Ahmet Davutoglu vowed the attacks against the PKK, which is being blamed for Monday’s retaliatory killing of a Turkish officer in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, would continue until it disarms. The NATO treaty empowers member states to seek emergency consultations if they deem their territorial integrity, political independence or security to be under threat.
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Turkey’s non-ISIS bombing targets have included the YPG, a militia of Syrian Kurds actively fighting against the jihadi group, and the PKK, a Kurdish nationalist group which has a strained relationship with Turkey and a presence in Iraq. “This is something that is discussed on a bilateral basis between Turkey and the United States”.
