ANKARA, Turkey \u2014 NATO\u2019s secretary-general apologized to Turkey on Friday over military exercises in Norway during which Turkey\u2019s founding leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, were reportedly depicted as \u201cenemies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Erdogan said Turkey withdrew 40 of its soldiers participating in the drills at NATO\u2019s Joint Warfare Centre in Stavanger, Norway, in protest of the incident and criticized the alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere can be no such unity, no such alliance,\u201d he said in an address to his ruling party\u2019s provincial leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Details of the incident were sketchy. Erdogan said Ataturk\u2019s picture and his own name were featured on an \u201cenemy chart\u201d during the drills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The individual who posted the material was described as a Norwegian civil contractor seconded by Norway, and not a NATO employee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg issued a statement saying: \u201cI apologize for the offense caused.\u201d He said the incident was the result of an \u201cindividual\u2019s actions\u201d and didn\u2019t reflect the views of the alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that the individual was removed from the exercise and an investigation was underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt will be for the Norwegian authorities to decide on any disciplinary action,\u201d Stoltenberg added. \u201cTurkey is a valued NATO ally, which makes important contributions to allied security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Norwegian Defence Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen apologized for the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe message does not reflect Norway\u2019s views or policies and I apologize for the content of the message,\u201d Bakke-Jensen said in a statement. He added that \u201cTurkey is an important ally in NATO, and we value our good cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Joint Warfare Centre is a multinational NATO unit based in Stavanger, 186 miles southwest of Oslo. It is currently led by Maj. Gen. Andrzej Reudowicz of Poland. According to its website, it has a staff of 250 made up of civilians from 11 NATO member states, including Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In March, the Norwegian government caused fury in Turkey by granting political asylum to five Turkish officers based in Norway who had refused to return home after the failed July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. The five officers said that they feared being arrested and tortured in Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkey’s president says he has withdrawn 40 of its soldiers participating in the drills at NATO\u2019s Joint Warfare Centre in Stavanger, Norway, in protest of the incident and criticized the alliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":82719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,8,12,25,68],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1550],"class_list":["post-44072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"AX63V6BTKJG6NFQS64KSFIOK3Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/training-sim\/2017\/11\/17\/nato-apologizes-after-turkeys-president-shown-as-enemy-during-drill\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n