Turkey Applies To Nato To Make Article Four Of North Atlantic Treaty Operational

BRUSSELS - Turkey applied to NATO to make the article four of the North Atlantic Treaty operational.
This application to invoke the fourth article of the treaty was the first in NATO's history.
The fourth article of the treaty says that the Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.
The fifth article of the treaty says that Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
This fifth article can be cooperation ''in case of war.''
The United States had declared a state of war after the September 11th terrorist attacks and asked the NATO to invoke the article 5. This was the first time that this article was made operational in NATO's history.
Application of Turkey, the only NATO member which has a border with Iraq, to invoke the fourth article caused different evaluations in the Alliance.
It is said that Turkey stressed the ''importance of showing that there could not be any problems in defense mechanism of NATO'' and that ''such a stance would not mean inciting a war in Iraq but it would have a deterring effect.''
NATO Council will continue its extraordinary meeting in the afternoon.