Turkey will veto the role of Austria in NATO programs and soldier trainings across the member states at a summit this week in retaliation for the country's harsh attitude towards its EU membership and other issues. Ankara's veto against Austria has been ongoing since last year.
According to the German daily Die Welt, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will not be willing further to work with Austria, which is not a NATO member, in retaliation for the Austrian government's continuous negative stance towards Ankara.
The news article contends that Austria will not be able to send troops to train with other member states and be excluded from significant alliance programs such as the Partnership Cooperation Menue (PCM).
Despite not being a member state, Austria actively participates within the alliance it also provides military reconnaissance. It supports the alliance in combat, training, combating corruption in the defense sector and destroying ammunition and landmines.
Vienna's anti-Turkey rhetoric has been dealing heavy damage to bilateral relations.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern has been a staunch anti-Turkey figure, calling for an EU-wide ban on election campaign appearances by Turkish politicians during the referendum campaigning period in Turkey.
Kern in August 2016 also called accession talks with Turkey a "diplomatic fiction" and said he wanted the EU leaders to reconsider their approach with regards to Ankara.
In addition, Kern was disturbed to see the support of Turks for their president and Turkey following the July 15 defeated coup.
In his remarks following the coup attempt, Kern had criticized anti-coup protests by Turks in Austria and called them "radical."
The Turkish Foreign Minister Çavusoğlu said at the time that this particular remark of Kern was even "uglier than" his comment about halting Turkey's EU accession process.
Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz has long been calling for the end of the Turkey-EU accession process.
The anti-Turkey foreign minister urged Brussels to halt EU accession talks with Ankara last year.
Recently, the Austrian government has also clamped down on Austrian-Turks who voted in favor of constitutional changes in Turkey's referendum in late April.
Apart from the anti-Turkey rhetoric from government figures, the leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs or FPÖ), Heinz-Christian Strache, had called on "yes" voters to go back to Turkey.
"So do yourself and your president a favor, and return to your country," Strache had said.
