Turkey rewarded for backing next Nato leader

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey secured concessions for backing Danish leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen as next Nato leader, including promises it will get key alliance posts, the Turkish Press reported Sunday. The deal also includes an agreement by Denmark to ban controversial Roj TV, which Ankara claims is a mouthpiece for the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), from broadcasting on its territory, newspapers reported. Rasmussen is also set to deliver conciliatory messages to the Muslim world, they said. Besides Roj TV, those objections included Rasmussens defence of a Danish newspapers right in 2005 to print blasphemous cartoons of the Holy Prophet (SAW) that enraged the Muslim world. Turkish press also reported Ankara will be awarded three key Nato posts, including that of assistant secretary-general, in return for backing Rasmussen, who takes over from Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on August 1. Rasmussen will join Obama in Istanbul to attend the second summit of the Alliance of Civilisations, an intercultural forum, on Monday.

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