Erdogan says he will not approve Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership if they sanction Turkey
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that he would not approve Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership if they sanction Ankara.
“Firstly, we would not say ‘yes’ to those imposing sanctions on Turkey’s accession to NATO, which is a security organization. Because then NATO would not remain a security organization, it would be a place where representatives of terrorism concentrate,” he said. Erdogan.
At a press conference in Ankara, Erdogan said that Swedish and Finnish delegations should not bother to come to Turkey to try to convince Turkey to approve the country’s NATO membership.
Turkey’s foreign minister held “some” meetings with Swedish and Finnish counterparts, Erdogan said, adding that neither of the two countries had a clear stance on terrorist organizations.
“Even though they say ‘we are against them’, on the contrary, they have statements that they do not hand over the terrorists they need to hand over to Turkey,” he said.
He added that Sweden is a “nest” for terrorist organizations and said that it allows terrorists to speak in parliament.
“They have special invitations to terrorists. They even have professional PKK MPs in their parliaments. How can we trust them?”
Erdogan reiterated the same position last week when he told a press conference in Istanbul that he did not look at the prospects for Finland and Sweden to join NATO “positively”, and accused both countries of hosting Kurdish “terrorist organizations”.
The PKK, or the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which strives for an independent state in Turkey, has been in an armed struggle with Turkey for decades and has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.