By Cansu Dikme
ANKARA (AA) – Norway's defense minister on Friday apologized to Turkey after a civilian Norwegian official depicted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as an “enemy collaborator ” during a NATO drill in the Scandinavian country.
In a statement published on the Ministry's website, Frank Bakke-Jensen said: “During a NATO exercise at the Joint Warfare Center in Stavanger an exercise message was published on the internal exercise network.
“The message does not reflect Norway's views or policies and I apologize for the content of the message. ”
The minister called Turkey “an important ally in NATO “, adding “we value our good cooperation “.
“The Norwegian national was removed from the exercise by JWC as a consequence of the incident. We will conduct a thorough investigation of the incident, and take the appropriate measures based on the conclusions, ” he said.
During the computer-assisted exercise, a Norwegian official created a dummy military chat account under the president’s name, and posted a fake chat showing Erdogan as collaborating with an enemy, a NATO official, who asked not to be named due to the nature of the incident, told Anadolu Agency.
Earlier on Friday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also apologized to Turkey over the incident.
“The incidents were the result of an individual’s actions and do not reflect the views of NATO, ” Stoltenberg said.
