Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called on Thursday for the enlargement of NATO and the addition of Georgia to the organization. Mevlut Cavusoglu said this statement at a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“I don’t understand why we have not invited Georgia or we haven’t activated the action plan for Georgia to become a member. We are criticized for having relatively better relations with Russia as a neighbor, but our western friends are not agreeing to invite Georgia because they don’t want to provoke Russia. But Georgia needs us and we need an ally like Georgia. So we need enlargement and Georgia should be made a member”, – Turkish Foreign Minister said.

In addition, Mevlut Cavusoglu declared that the occupation and annexation would never be recognized.

“Whether I agree with Russia on the issues of Crimea or Georgia? No. We will never recognize the illegal occupation and annexation. There are many frozen conflicts around us, two regions of Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Crimea. We disagree with Russia on some issues, though we cooperate with Russia in various fields,”  – he said.

In an interview with German Bild newspaper Turkish Foreign Minister says that Turkey has always supported Georgia’s accession to NATO, however European states, like Germany and France, refrain from making the decision on Georgia fearing to discontent Russia.