Turkish Minister of EU Affairs Ömer Çelik said Monday he believed the network of the U.S. based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, referred to as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), were responsible for the provocation against Turkish leadership during NATO drills in Norway.
The network of Gülen was one of the masterminds of last years coup attempt.
On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced his decision to withdraw 40 Turkish servicemen from the NATO Javeline drills in Norway, which took place on November 8-17, after his name, along with the name of the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, appeared on an "enemy chart" during the exercise. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has already offered his apologies to the Turkish president. He noted that the person who posted the material was a Norwegian civil contractor, not a NATO employee.
"Ankara stressed that it would never accept the disrespect toward the founder of the Rebuplic of Turkey, Atatürk, and its current president Erdoğan. Turkey will watch over further development of the situation to prevent it from repeating itself. It seems that the incident was a result of a FETÖ provocation, that is why Turkey expects that the incident will be investigated in an appropriate way and all necessary measures will be taken," Çelik was quoted as saying by the Anadolu news agency.
