Ankara: NATO migrant mission no longer needed

Turkey has called for an end to NATO's counter-migration mission in the Aegean Sea, telling the U.S.-led alliance that the sharp drop in refugees trying to get to Greece means there is no longer a need for warships to patrol its coast. 

But hours after Turkey's call, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance had decided to continue with the NATO mission in the Aegean. 

"We, as Turkey, say now, 'This operation has reached its goal. There is no need to continue with this for a long time,'" said Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Işık on Oct. 27 in Brussels, where he was to attend a defense ministers' meeting of the alliance. 

"We have officially informed NATO over our perspective for the termination of this NATO activity until the end of this year," said Işık.

The sharp decline in the number of migrants' crossings in the Aegean Sea after a European Union-Turkey deal in March is due to the Turkish Coast Guard's success and not that of NATO forces, Işık said.

"For us there is no need for NATO to keep forces in the Aegean anymore," Işık said. 

Speaking to members of press, Stoltenberg highlighted the benefits of closer NATO-EU cooperation and noted that NATO's deployment supported Greece, Turkey and the EU's border agency Frontex in breaking the lines of human trafficking. 

"That is why last night we decided to continue our Aegean deployment," said Stoltenberg.

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, whose country currently leads the maritime mission, said the Aegean mission was secure until Dec. 31. Asked what could happen in 2017, she said: "We will have to see then." 

An EU deal with Turkey remains in place and is providing Ankara with billions of euros so long as Turkey...