Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday dubbed the demands made by Saudi Arabia and three other nations to Doha to end a blockade as “an attack on Qatar‘s sovereignty right”.
Erdogan said Turkey would “appreciate and embrace’ Qatar’s stance against the 13-article demand by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt.
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“We consider these demands are against international law. It is a breach of Qatar’s sovereignty rights.” Anadolu quoted Erdogan, as saying.
Erdogan also said that it would not entertain a demand by the four Arab nations that Turkey should shut down its military base in Qatar.
He said Turkey’s withdrawal would amount to ‘disrespect’ towards Qatar.
“Should we get permission when we make a defence cooperation agreement with any country? No offence but Turkey is not such an ordinary country [that will ask for permission],” Erdogan said.
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On June 23, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik said that any call to shut the base would act as interference in Turkey’s ties with Qatar.
Turkey’s parliament voted to deploy more troops to the base and approved the training of Qatari forces by Turkish gendarmeries following the cutting of ties with Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and Yemen.