Anadolu Agency exhibits on 2016 defeated coup at NATO

By Serife Cetin

BRUSSELS (AA) - Anadolu Agency held a photo exhibition on the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey at NATO headquarters on Friday.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the exhibition, NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller said she is there for the opening of an exhibition of a very "traumatic" moment.

"To bomb a national parliament when there are parliamentarians within it, is not only an attack on innocent people, and on an ally, it is an attack on all NATO allies and the values we defend, freedom, democracy and the rule of law," Gottemoeller stressed.

She said any attempt to undermine democracy in any of the NATO allies is "unacceptable".

"We continue to salute the courage of the Turkish people who took to the streets often at great personal risk to defend democracy," Gottemoeller said.

Also addressing the opening ceremony, Basat Ozturk, Turkey's permanent representative to NATO, said the military bloc is an alliance of democracies.

Ozturk said the basic values of NATO like democracy, rule of law and freedom is also "precious" for the Turkish people, state and government.

"We are proud to have such a great nation defending democracy," Ozturk stressed.

Fetullah Terrorist Organization and Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup attempt of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

*Writing by Fatih Hafiz Mehmet