The President of Turkey says “no” to the bid of Sweden and Finland NATO
ISTANBUL – Turkey will oppose Sweden and Finland join NATOsaid the country’s president straight off in a video released on Thursday.
“We have told our relevant friends that we would say ‘no’ to Finland and Sweden’s entry into NATO, and we will continue on our path like this,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a group of Turkish youths in the video in memory of Ataturk, Youth and Sports Day, a national holiday.
Turkey’s approval of Finland and Sweden The application to join the Western military alliance is crucial because NATO makes decisions by consensus. Each of its 30 member states has the power to veto a membership offer.
That’s what Erdogan said Turkey’s objection stems from complaints with Sweden’s – and to a lesser extent with Finland’s – perceived support for the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and an armed group in Syria that Turkey sees as an extension of the PKK. The conflict with the PKK has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.
A.D
Turkey also accuses Sweden and Finland of harboring supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim priest accused by the Turkish government of the 2016 military coup.
A full recording of Erdogan’s talks with the youth ahead of the holiday, which marks the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence in 1919, is expected to be released on Thursday night. It was not immediately clear when the conversation took place.
In the comments made available earlier on Thursday, Erdogan accused the two future members of NATO and especially Sweden of being “a focus for terror, home to terror.” He accused them of providing financial and arms support to the armed groups and claimed that the countries’ alleged links to terrorist organizations meant that they should not be part of the transatlantic alliance.
Turkish officials, including the president, have also pointed to arms restrictions for Turkey as a reason for Ankara’s opposition to the two countries joining NATO.
A.D
Several European countries, including Sweden and Finland, restricted arms exports to Turkey after the country’s cross-border operation into northeastern Syria in 2019 with the stated goal of clearing the border area of Kurdish militants.
Turkey says the Syrian Kurdish People’s Defense Units, or YPG, are directly linked to the PKK, and Ankara was frustrated by US support for them in the fight against the Islamic State.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, transmitted, rewritten or redistributed without permission.