Turkey must quit NATO - head of Duma defense committee
MOSCOW. July 20 (Interfax-AVN) - The chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, Vladimir Komoyedov, said that Turkey should withdraw from NATO.
"Erdogan should not wait until he is thrown out of NATO, he should slam the door himself," Komoyedov told Interfax on Wednesday.
The European Union and the United States repeatedly warned the Turkish president that his country would be expelled from NATO unless he stops suppressing the opposition, he said.
"If he heeds this chorus, he will miss a historical chance of consolidating his country's positions in the Middle East," Komoyedov said.
"A man who realized that someone wanted to kill him must transform internally, he must turn from being a hawk into a dove of peace. There is a view that Turkey wants to become a leader in the Middle East and that Erdogan dreams of becoming a sultan. But those saying it forget that the leader could be both an invader, aggressor, in fact a villain, and a peacekeeper," the Duma committee chairman said.
NATO is inciting the conflict by continuing to increase its military presence, he said.
"Read the 20th century history, look at post-war Europe: the USSR was so adept at using its armed forces that Europe did not have not only global but local conflicts in almost 50 years. And the NATO bloc today is placing everywhere its peace-loving little men who not only fail to deter conflicts but, on the contrary, incite them. Wherever NATO is, there is fighting and conflict," Komoyedov said.