According to Turkey’s official news agency Anadolu, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday that he will not allow Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
Senior delegates from Helsinki and Stockholm will visit to Turkey “soon” to resolve Ankara’s concerns to their NATO membership, according to the Swedish foreign ministry.
Erdogan, on the other hand, suggested that diplomats should not come to Turkey to attempt to persuade Ankara to endorse their NATO membership ambitions.
“First of all, we would not say ‘yes’ to those who impose sanctions on Turkey to join NATO, a security organization, during this process,” Erdogan said. “Neither country has an open, clear stance against terrorist organizations,” he added, describing Sweden as an “incubation center for terrorist organizations.”
“They have special invitations to terrorists. They even have pro PKK MPs in their parliaments. How are we going to trust them?,” Erdogan continued, alluding to the PKK, which Ankara has designated as a terrorist group.
The two Nordic nations have agreed that they will apply to join NATO, putting an end to years of military nonalignment in a historic step prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey expressed its opposition to the two countries joining NATO last week, accusing them of aiding Kurdish insurgents it deems terrorists and neglecting to extradite scores of alleged “terrorists.”
On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu remarked: “Countries supporting terrorism should not be allies in NATO,” Anadolu reported. He added that Turkey demanded both Finland and Sweden “stop supporting terror groups.”
