Turkey says FETO terror group role in NATO incidents

By Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s deputy prime minister on Wednesday said that FETO, the group behind last year’s defeated coup attempt, also played a role in incidents at a recent NATO military drill where prominent Turkish statesmen were slandered.

"We see these attitudes, these kinds of things mostly as tactics of members of FETO," or the Fetullah Terrorist Organization, Hakan Cavusoglu told Anadolu Agency Editors' Desk.

Turkey withdrew its troops from a NATO exercise in Norway last week after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk were both depicted as “enemies” in materials for the computer-based drill.

Following the incidents, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg apologized to Turkey in a written statement as well as to Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar during a face-to-face meeting in Canada.

FETO, led-by U.S. based leader Fetullah Gulen, masterminded the July 15 defeated coup attempt that martyred 250 people and left around 2,200 others injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.