UPDATE - Turkey: Opposition leader slams NATO dig at defense buy

UPDATE WITH BAHCELI'S REMARKS ON TURKEY'S IRAQ POLICY

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - A Turkish opposition leader on Tuesday slammed NATO criticism of Turkey’s decision to buy a Russian-made missile defense system.

At his party's parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli asked why Turkey should have asked NATO about its defense purchases.

"Where was NATO when Turkey's national security was surrounded by terrible attacks, what was it doing?" he said.

"We can buy weapons from whoever we want, and we never have to justify this to NATO."

On Oct, 26 in Washington, Gen. Petr Pavel, the head of NATO’s Military Committee, criticized Turkey for purchasing the Russian S-400 air defense system.

On the purchase decision, he said: “The same way that nations are sovereign in making their decision, they are also sovereign in facing the consequences of that decision.”

Citing Turkey’s decades-long NATO membership, Bahceli said that Turkey has always fulfilled its responsibilities to the bloc since it joined, in 1952.

-‘What did NATO do in wake of coup attempt?’

Bahceli also decried NATO's lack of response to last year’s coup attempt in Turkey by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

"What measures did NATO take against FETO's July 15 coup attempt, what preventive measures has NATO put into effect?" he said.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and some 2,200 injured.

Turkey 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.

Bahceli said that Turkey is an independent country that can buy whatever weapons it wants based on its needs.

"We’re not looking at NATO but Qandil,” the northern Iraqi headquarters of the terrorist PKK, he said.

“We’re engaged in a life and death struggle with murderers."

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU. During its over 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, more than 40,000 people have lost their lives.

Turkey recently agreed to purchase the S-400 system from Russia amid NATO concerns over the deal.

The S-400 is Russia’s most advanced long-range anti-aircraft missile system and can carry three types of missiles capable of destroying targets including ballistic and cruise missiles.

It can track and engage up to 300 targets at the same time and has an altitude ceiling of 27 kilometers (17 miles).

- Bahceli backs government’s Iraq policy

Bahceli also voiced support for the government’s recent Iraq policy to secure the country's territorial integrity.

"Turkey's rising Iraq policy has carried out an important and historic mission against the fire of treason fueled beyond our borders," said Bahceli.

He added: "We affirm and appreciate this policy."

Tension has steadily mounted between Baghdad and the northern Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) since Sept. 25, when Iraqis in KRG-held areas -- and in several disputed areas -- voted on whether or not to declare independence from the central government.

In the wake of the illegitimate referendum, and the strong international backlash, Iraqi and Turkish troops today moved to the main Turkish-Iraqi border gate, and Iraq’s central government took control of the gate from KRG forces.

Bahceli also spoke on Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's visit to Ankara on Oct. 25, saying it enhanced the friendly relations between the two countries.

He said that the meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and al-Abadi would serve peace in the region, stressing the statements they made afterwards

After the meeting, Erdogan had said: "There is a PKK presence in [Iraqi] areas like Sinjar and Qandil. In these areas we are ready to continue common efforts and stand in solidarity [with Baghdad].”

Al-Abadi said that there is a joint responsibility for forging stability in the whole region.

“We suggested [during the visit] a project that would bring stability to the region through real economic development,” he said.