A retired Turkish army major has returned his NATO certificate and medal in the wake of the recent drill incident in Norway, which prompted a strong reaction from Turkey.

"Until the incident, I exhibited the medal in the best place in my house, inside a frame. Later [after the incident] I decided that this certificate and medal did not belong to my house anymore, but to NATO. So, I sent them to the Turkish Land Forces Command to be delivered back to NATO," Zafer Oğuz told Anadolu Agency (AA).

He said some of his friends, who were also awarded with NATO medals, asked him about the process to return them.

Zafer Oğuz was working as a military engineer officer with the Fifth Corps in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ when he was sent to Afghanistan to work under the NATO umbrella in 2010.

Three months after his arrival, he was awarded with a certificate and a medal, signed by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the then-NATO secretary-general. He retired in 2011 upon returning to Turkey.