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Defense minister: Turkish military base in Qatar exclusively internal issue

23 June 2017 15:53 (UTC+04:00)
Defense minister: Turkish military base in Qatar exclusively internal issue

By Kamila Aliyeva

Turkey’s military base in Qatar is exclusively an internal issue of Ankara and Doha, the Turkish media outlets quoted Defense Minister Fikri Isik as saying on June 23.

Isik, commenting on the reports that Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates demanded from Doha to close Turkey’s Al-Rayyan military base in Qatar, said that no country has the right to interfere in the affairs of other countries.

Currently, there are 113 Turkish servicemen in Qatar, according to the Turkish General Staff. There are also five armored personnel carriers on the Turkish military base in Qatar.

The armed forces of Qatar and Turkey plan to conduct joint military exercises at the end of the month. The first group of Turkish military instructors left for Qatar on June 19.

The military agreement between Qatar and Turkey came into force on June 9. The document was signed in Ankara on November 10, 2016.

Recently, the Turkish parliament ratified an agreement between the two countries on the deployment of a Turkish military contingent in Qatar.

Moreover, the Turkish parliament ratified the Protocol on Cooperation in the Field of Education and Training for Gendarmerie between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Government of the State of Qatar.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, along with Egypt, cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar in early June, accusing the country of supporting Iran, extremism and terrorist organizations such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda - charges that Qatar has repeatedly denied.

These Gulf nations were later joined by Libya, Yemen, the Maldives, Mauritius and Mauritania, with Jordan and Djibouti announcing they would lower the level of diplomatic contacts with Qatar. Senegal and Chad recalled their ambassadors from Doha.

Doha denied allegations over its support to terrorism and extremism adding that the diplomatic rift was based on "baseless fabricated claims."

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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