Turkey expects more support from NATO and its allies for activities aimed at stabilizing the region and the world as a country at the core of the alliance's geopolitical future, Turkey's Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said on Thursday.

Speaking at the opening of the panel discussion on "Changing Dynamics and Longstanding Alliance: Stronger with Turkiye for 70 Years," in Ankara, Altun highlighted Turkey’s contributions to NATO missions and operations as well as relations with the pact.

NATO stands as the largest and most institutionally advanced alliance in the history of the world and it has made significant contributions to peace and stability across the globe ever since its establishment, according to Altun.

"NATO today is not just an alliance, it has gone beyond alliance and transformed into an international institution where many countries cooperate in the name of security," he said, adding that alliances were expected to dissolve following the disintegration of an enemy figure but that has not been the case with NATO.

Turkey joined the military alliance of 30 North American and European countries in 1952. The country has also been providing permanent naval assistance to NATO missions in the Aegean Sea while leading regional initiatives, including the Standing NATO Maritime Group’s (SNMG) activities in the Black Sea region.

Turkey also hosts many NATO initiatives. There is a NATO headquarters in the western Izmir province, an air base in southern Adana province, another one in Diyarbakır and a NATO Rapid Deployable Corps in Istanbul. It also hosts the AN/TPY-2 radar in eastern Malatya province as part of the organization’s missile shield project. Apart from all these, in 2018 alone, Turkey contributed $101 million (TL 1.3 billion) to the common funding of NATO.

Although some claimed NATO expired and was referred to as "brain dead" by a leader of a NATO-member country, the organization still maintains its position in global politics, said Altun, also noting that the alliance was a strong international organization stretching from continental America to the borders of Asia with 30 members.

He said that Turkey had always viewed NATO as a strategic and valuable alliance bringing peace and stability to not only the member states but the globe.

"Like all countries, Turkey also has relations with non-NATO countries. These ties should not be regarded as an alternative to NATO," he said.

"Turkey is one of NATO's most active, most reliable allies and it did not join NATO solely as a result of its geographical features," he said, stressing that Ankara made contributions to the pact even prior to becoming a member.

The official went on to say that Turkey was among the top five alliance members making the most contributions to missions and operations, as seen in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, and Turkey undertook the responsibility for NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) in 2021.

Emphasizing that Turkey has always viewed the alliance as an important instrument of its agenda for security and foreign policy, he said his country was standing at the very center of the geopolitical future of NATO.

While Turkey fulfills its responsibilities toward the international organization, it also has expectations from NATO and member countries to contribute to stability and peace across its region and the world, said Altun.

He called on NATO to support efforts for stability on European borders more intensively as developments in Syria in the past decade demonstrated the fact that instability could spread to the whole world and issues such as terror and migration emanating from the Syrian crisis were still awaiting solutions.

Altun said his country simultaneously fought multiple terrorist groups in Syria, such as the Daesh and the PKK, but failed to get the expected support from NATO allies.

Turkey's counterterrorism efforts for sake of self-defense also serve anti-terror expectations of NATO and global terrorism, threat, according to Altun, who was critical of some NATO allies who he said were "hand-to-hand" with terrorist groups, let alone supporting Turkey in its battle against terrorism, and it was "unacceptable" for Ankara that some allies were trying to use one terrorist group to fight another.

Despite Turkey’s commitment to the organization, it has not received the support it expects.

The first disappointment came in 1964 when Turkey decided to take action in Cyprus where Turkish Cypriots were suffering under Greek Cypriots. The then-United States President Lyndon B. Johnson sent a letter to Turkish President Ismet Inönü, saying that in case of an invasion on the island, NATO would not side with the country.

In the late 1990s, when the fight against the PKK was at its height in Turkey, particularly in the eastern regions of the country, Germany claimed that Turkey was using weapons against civilians and issued an embargo on the country instead of supporting its fight.

Over time, siding with terrorists rather than Turkey became a pattern for many NATO member countries, particularly the U.S. The U.S. has supported the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, the YPG, in Syria for years now, despite Turkey’s warnings that the group is a security threat for them.

The U.S. has provided military training and supplied truckloads of weapons to the YPG, disregarding warnings from Ankara that partnering with one terrorist group to fight another is not acceptable.

Turkey says the weapons are ultimately transferred to the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S., Turkey and the European Union, and used against Turkey.