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Diplomats say that although Ankara has approved a plan known as the Eagle Defender, it has not allowed NATO to start implementing the plan.
The dispute between Turkey and other NATO allies, which was first reported to Reuters last November, shows disagreements between Ankara, Paris and Washington over Turkey’s military campaign against Kurds in northern Syria last year.
The Turkish government has yet to comment on the situation. Later on Wednesday and Thursday, NATO defense ministers will discuss this in a video conference.
“Turkey does not agree to approve these plans unless we recognize the PYD / PKK as terrorist entities,” said a French defense corps official, referring to Kurdish Syrian and Turkish groups that Ankara considered dangerous insurgents.
“It just came to our attention then. We must show solidarity with the allies in the east, and blocking these plans is unacceptable,” the official said.
At the NATO summit last December, Erdogan agreed with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and other Alliance leaders to withdraw their demands, but NATO’s defense plans for the Baltic states and Poland have not yet have been implemented.
Turkey launched a military campaign in northern Syria last October after the United States withdrew 1,000 of its troops from the area. Ankara’s allies in NATO said the invasion of Syria was detrimental to the fight against jihadists from the Islamic State (IS).
NATO defense plans for the Baltic States and Poland were prepared after 2014 Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine. While these plans are not tied to Turkey’s military strategy in Syria, the disagreements increase the security threat across all parts of NATO.
Under the NATO Treaty, an attack by an allied state is considered an attack on the Alliance as a whole, and NATO has developed military strategies to defend all member states.
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