NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Turkish-MSNBC broadcast partner NTV he welcomes Turkey’s efforts against ISIS in Syria.

• Stoltenberg: ”We welcome Turkey’s increasing efforts to fight against Daesh [ISIS]. Turkey has a right to defend itself. There have been many terrorist attacks coming from the Syrian side.”
• Stoltenberg is visiting Turkey for the first time since the July 15 coup.
• Turkey is NATO’s second-largest military.
• NTV is a Turkish nationwide TV News Channel, partnered with MSNBC since May 2000.
• Turkey’s military launched an incursion into Syria in August.

(VERO BEACH, FL) NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday he welcomed Turkey’s efforts against Islamic State and that Ankara had a right to defend itself.

“We welcome Turkey’s increasing efforts to fight against Daesh. Turkey has a right to defend itself. There have been many terrorist attacks coming from the Syrian side,” Stoltenberg told broadcaster NTV, which dubbed his comments into Turkish.

Daesh is an Arabic name for Islamic State.

Stoltenberg is visiting Turkey for the first time since the July 15 coup raised concern about the cohesion of the alliance’s second-largest military.

His visit also comes after Turkey launched its incursion into Syria last month, a military operation that has seen Turkey-backed rebels sweep Islamic State from the Syrian border.

This article was contributed by Reuters