Bulgaria Expresses Solidarity with Turkey - FM

Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov stated on Tuesday that Bulgaria expresses solidarity with Turkey.

His comments come after the request of Turkey for a special meeting of the North Atlantic Council to be convened under Article 4 of the Washington Treaty.

At the meeting on Tuesday, NATO expressed solidarity with Turkey and discussed the security problems after the suicide attack in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc last week, which left 32 people dead and hundreds injured.

Turkey responded by launching a series of airstrikes on targets of Islamic State (IS) and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Syria and Iraq as well as massive police raids against suspected IS and PKK militants.

Mitov made it clear that Bulgaria was closely following the events in Turkey and the country was standing "shoulder to shoulder" with Ankara, he said in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT).

He assured that at the special meeting of NATO, Turkey had requested only political support rather than military intervention.

In his words, Turkey was in its right to respond to the attacks and Mitov called on stepping up the efforts against the IS.

Since Bulgaria was the territory linking geographically two areas of conflict - IS and Ukraine, the army had to be prepared to ensure the security of its people.

Mitov said that the preparedness of the army was being ensured through the military drills.

The foreign minister stated that the allies should not be viewed separately and in case Bulgaria was threatened, it would immediately request aid.

He reminded that at the last NATO summit in Wales, Bulgaria had called on the Alliance to demonstrate its will to apply Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which provides...