NATO shows ‘solidarity’ with Turkey at emergency meeting on ISIL

NATO declared its “strong solidarity” with Turkey on Tuesday as ambassadors gathered for a rare emergency meeting about the threat faced by a member.

Turkey requested the extraordinary meeting to gauge the threat the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) poses to Turkey, and the actions Turkish authorities are taking in response, including attacks on Kurdish rebels.

“We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks against Turkey, and express our condolences to the Turkish government and the families” of victims killed in recent terrorist actions, NATO ambassadors said in a statement after the meeting.

“Terrorism poses a direct threat to the security of NATO countries and to international stability and prosperity,” the NATO statement said. “It is a global threat that knows no border, nationality or religion — a challenge that the international community must fight and tackle together.”

Article 4 of NATO's founding treaty empowers member states to seek emergency consultations when they consider their “territorial integrity, political independence or security” to be in jeopardy. This was only the fifth such meeting in NATO's 66-year history.

In Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish and U.S. officials were discussing the creation of a safe zone near Turkey's border with Syria, which would be cleared of ISIL's presence and turned into a secure area for Syrian refugees to return.

Speaking at a news conference Tuesday before leaving for China, Erdogan also said it was impossible to advance a peace process with the Kurds as attacks on Turkey continue.

Recently, an ISIL suicide bombing near Turkey's border with Syria left 32 people dead and an ISIL attack on Turkish forces killed a soldier. And on Tuesday, Turkey said a soldier was wounded in an attack along the border with Iraq.

After months of reluctance, Turkish warplanes last week started striking targets in Syria and agreed to allow the U.S. to launch its own strikes from Turkey's strategically located Incirlik Air Base.

In a series of cross-border strikes, Turkey has not only targeted ISIL but also Kurdish fighters affiliated with forces battling ISIL in Syria and Iraq.

The Syrian Kurds are among the most effective ground forces battling ISIL and have been backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, but Turkey fears a revival of the Kurdish insurgency in pursuit of an independent state.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has fought Turkey for autonomy for Kurds in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984. The Kurds are an ethnic group with their own language living in a region spanning present-day Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia.

For some NATO members and independent observers, it's unclear whether Turkey's No. 1 target is ISIL or the Kurds, said Ian Kearns, director of the European Leadership Network, a London-based think tank.

What's more, Turkish leaders “have actually been arguing that the Kurds in Syria are more of a threat to Turkey,” Kearns told The Associated Press.

On Monday, Syria's main Kurdish militia and an activist group said Turkish troops shelled a Syrian village near the border, targeting Kurdish fighters.

“There is no difference between PKK and Daesh,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters Monday, using an Arabic acronym to refer to ISIL.

“You can't say that PKK is better because it is fighting Daesh,” Cavusoglu said during a visit to Lisbon, Portugal.

The Associated Press