The Star daily, a staunch supporter of Turkish autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Sunday said NATO has started a new military drill in the Mediterranean to surround Turkey. “The US, Germany and Greece have launched a missile drill called Artemis to attack ‘an enemy in the East’,” the newspaper said in its lead story.
“The US, which selected terrorist organizations the PKK/PYD [Kurdistan Workers’ Party/ Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party] for an alliance and equipped them with heavy weapons, has taken another step against Turkey that became pretty clear following the coup attempt on July 15 [2016]. Washington, which has imposed a covert weapons embargo on Turkey, and Germany, which talks about ‘occupying Turkey,’ have launched a joint missile drill in Greece,” the daily claimed.
According to Star the drill is a result of Turkey’s insistence on buying an S-400 air defense system from Russia despite threats from NATO.
Speaking to the daily, retired Gen. Fahri Erenel said that NATO, for the first time in its history, has declared a member state a potential new enemy.
Star noted that the drill launched on Crete with the participation of over 200 American and 370 German soldiers will continue until Nov. 9.
GÜNEŞ: DOMESTICALLY PRODUCED TURKISH CAR SCARES GERMANS
Meanwhile, the Güneş daily, a staunch supporter of the Turkish government, on Sunday said Turkey’s steps towards producing its first domestically made car have scared Germany, along with other big projects such as a third airport in İstanbul.
Turkey on Nov. 2 launched a joint venture of five local industrial giants — Anadolu Group, BMC, Kıraça Holding, Turkcell and Zorlu Holding — to produce its first domestically made car.
“Germany fears that the Turkish car, which is planned to be on the road in 2019, will threaten its control of the market,” the newspaper wrote, claiming that Berlin has already started a smear campaign against the Turkish car: “Got into a flap, Merkel’s government has pushed the button to activate the media for perception operations.”
Speaking during the ceremony for first domestically made car, Turkish President Erdoğan said he expected the car’s prototype to be ready in 2019 and for sales to start in 2021.
Erdoğan also declared himself the first customer. “I want to own the first such automobile, and I will pay for it,” he said. (SCF with turkishminute.com)
