Erdogan Calls On NATO To Make Choice Between Turkey, Kurdish 'Terrorists'

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th October, 2019) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused NATO of failing to support Turkey's fight against Kurdish militias, calling on the alliance to make a choice between Turkey and "terrorists."

Turkey launched on October 9 an offensive in Syria's north, in a bid to clear its Syria-facing border area of the Islamic States terrorists (banned in Russia) and the Kurdish militia from the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Kurdish People's Protection Units, whom Ankara designates as a single terrorist organization.

"We are members of NATO, which has Article 5 [Article 5 of NATO Charter stipulates that an attack against one NATO member is considered as an attack against all the allies], and we are facing threat from a terrorist organization.

According to Article 5, NATO should be with us. Are you with us or with terrorists? It [NATO] doesn't provide a clear answer," Erdogan told reporters on Monday.

Erdogan noted that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whom he had recently held phone negotiations with, were under "a significant pressure of disinformation."