(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Days after PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoanaccused the international coalition battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria of leaving his country to fight the jihadists alone on its own soil,NATOhas expressed solidarity with Turkey in the face of regular attacks on a Turkish border province by rockets fired from jihadist-controlled areas in Syria.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuolu initiated a telephone conversation withNATOSecretary General Jens Stoltenberg on May 9 while in Paris, where he also held a bilateral meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, as both Çavuolu and Kerry attended talks on the conflict in Syria, Turkish diplomatic sources told Hürriyet Daily News.
“During the contact which was held upon our request, threats directed at our country from Syria have been dealt with.NATOSecretary General Stoltenberg has extended his condolence wishes for those who lost their lives in rocket attacks directed at Kilis and has emphasized thatNATOis in solidarity with our country,” the same diplomatic sources, speaking under customary condition of anonymity, said.
The southeastern border province of Kilis, which lies just across the frontier from ISIL-controlled territory in Syria, has been regularly struck by rockets in recent weeks, killing about 20 people and wounding 70 more, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.
Turkey’s appeal for closer cooperation from itsallies against ISIL attacks was also a subject of theParismeeting between Çavuolu and Kerry.
“During the meeting held with Kerry, the particularity that ‘friendly and allied countries need to be in closer cooperation on the issue of Daesh [ISIL] terror’ was emphasized,” the diplomatic sources said. “Mr. Çavuolu and Mr. Kerry compared notes on also having this issue on the agenda during theNATOForeign Ministers meeting, which will be held next week,” they added.
Along with Çavuolu and Kerry, representatives of the European Union, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan as well as Riyad Hijab, the head of the Saudi-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC), gathered inParisin an effort to relaunch the Syrian peace process.
The Turkish military usually responds to rocket attacks in Kilis with artillery barrages into northern Syria, but officials have said it is difficult to hit mobile ISIL targets with howitzers. Turkish officials have said they need more help from Western allies in defending Kilis and the border.
“None of those who claim to fight against Daesh in Syria have neither inflicted as many losses on it as we have, nor have they paid as big a price as we have,” Erdoan said in a speech on May 7. “They left us alone in our struggle against this group that hurts us with suicide bombings and attacks on Kilis.”
Kilis is about 60 kilometers north of Aleppo - Syria’s embattled, biggest city and a big prize in the more than five-year-old civil war - and is sheltering about 110,000 Syrian refugees.
Meanwhile, upon his return to Ankara, Çavuolu hosted on May 10 the chair of the American-Turkish Council (ATC), James L. Jones, also the former commander of the U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied CommanderEuropeand a former National Security Advisor.
Çavuolu and Jones exchanged views on bilateral relations betweenAnkaraand Washington, as well as on regional developments, the diplomatic sources said.
By Emine Kart