After the Idlib massacre, NATO does Article 4 and talks at the end of an emergency meeting about its support for Turkey

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has ended an emergency meeting at its headquarters in Brussels, which Turkey has called for, to discuss the bloody developments in Idlib after the killing and wounding of dozens of its soldiers in the bombing last night.

At the end of its meeting, the alliance condemned the "indiscriminate" air strikes by the Syrian government and Russia on Idlib governorate, and expressed their solidarity with Turkey and offered their condolences to its soldiers who were killed yesterday, Thursday.

"The Allies condemn the indiscriminate air strikes by the Syrian regime and Russia in the Idlib governorate," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after a meeting with the 29 ambassadors of the alliance at its headquarters in Brussels.

He added: "I call on them to stop their attacks, to respect international law, and to support the efforts of the United Nations aimed at a peaceful solution ... This is a dangerous situation that must be calmed down."

Procedures
He emphasized that NATO continues to support Turkey in various forms, as an example of this is the strengthening of its air defenses and closely following field developments to the borders of the southeastern Alliance, where the Alliance already provides surveillance aircraft (AWACS) among other measures.

Responding to a question about the allies providing concrete support to Ankara, Stoltenberg said: NATO currently supports Turkey, and the allies are studying the possibility of doing more for it.

Prior to that, the Secretary-General of NATO announced, in a tweet via Twitter, that NATO had activated Article 4 of its charter at Turkey's request.

Article 4 of the NATO Charter states that any member of the Alliance can request consultation with all allies, when he feels threatened about the unity of his territory, political independence, or security.

In 2015, Turkey had requested the activation of Article 4, and after that the Alliance approved a series of measures to enhance Turkey's security vis-a-vis Syria's threats.

The package of measures included measures such as conducting AWACS early-warning patrols in the region, increasing military elements in the eastern Mediterranean, and strengthening cooperation in intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance.

Contacts with Western leaders
Amid the aftermath of the attack on Turkish soldiers in Idlib, a Turkish official said on Friday that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will speak with leaders of the United States, France, Germany and Britain in the wake of an air strike that killed 33 Turkish soldiers in the Syrian Idlib region.

The TV channel "NTV" quoted the director of communications of the Presidency of the Republic Fakhreddin Alton as saying that Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during a phone call to meet face to face as soon as possible.

Anatolia reported that Turkish and Russian delegations would hold talks in Ankara on Idlib.

The agency added that the deputy foreign ministers of the two countries are chairing the delegates' meetings for the third consecutive day of talks in the Turkish capital.

Russia is asking to protect its interests
On the other hand, the Russian Information Agency, quoting the Kremlin, said on Friday that Moscow hopes that Turkey will do everything in its power to protect Russian nationals and its Russian diplomatic facilities amid escalating tension over Syria.

The comments came after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in a raid by Syrian government forces in Idlib, northwestern Syria, on Thursday.

The Kremlin said that President Vladimir Putin met with the Russian Security Council today to discuss the situation in Syria and said that Turkish forces should not be deployed outside observation posts in Idlib, Syria.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov offered condolences to Turkey over the killing of the military, noting that both President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the developments in Idlib after the attack.

He added that Turkey has the right to resort to its NATO allies, but considered that what happens in Idlib does not fall under any clause of the NATO Charter.

The Russian minister said that his country and Turkey are ready to continue coordination on Idlib, noting at the same time that the Syrian army has the right to eliminate "terrorism" completely and that they cannot prevent it, and said, "There is no place for compromise with the terrorists in Syria."

The Turkish President held an exceptional security meeting yesterday evening regarding the situation in northwestern Syria, which was attended by the Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoغلlu, Chief of Staff Major General Yasar Guler and Chief of Intelligence Hakan Fidan.

The Turkish army responded to the regime forces by bombing several locations of it, and the head of the Presidential Communications Department Fakhreddin Alton said, "All of the (Syrian) regime's specific targets have been targeted by the fire of our land and air forces."