Turkey is seeking insurance if Sweden, Finland bids
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reiterated that measures must be taken to address the “legitimate concerns” his government has about Sweden’s and Finland’s requests for NATO membership.
In a telephone conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday, Erdogan insisted that Turkey must have written assurances from both countries before any progress can be made with their applications, according to reports from news agencies.
Erdogan stressed that they “can not make progress in the process without concrete steps that meet Turkey’s legitimate expectations, and without making written commitments about a paradigm shift in the fight against terrorism and defense industry cooperation,” the Turkish government said in a statement.
The Nordic countries formally applied to join NATO last month after the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which began in February.
Turkey has objected to the applications, citing Swedish and Finnish links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, and other anti-Turkey groups.
The Indo-Asian News Service, or IANS, noted that the PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and has been agitating against the Turkish government for more than 30 years.
Turkey also claims that both countries have provided protection to members of the Gulen movement, which the government says started a failed military coup attempt in 2016.
Ankara’s expectations had not been met by documents submitted by Sweden, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was quoted by news agencies as saying that all negotiations on NATO’s offer would have to address Turkey’s demands. It was noted that Cavusoglu had previously insisted that the two countries change their laws if needed to get support from Turkey for their NATO offerings.
Stoltenberg wrote on social media and said he had a “constructive conversation” with Erdogan ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid, which will be held June 29-30.
“We discussed the importance of addressing Turkey’s legitimate security concerns in the fight against terrorism and making progress in NATO’s accession process for Finland and Sweden,” he said.
During a visit to Sweden on Monday, Stoltenberg was quoted by authorities as saying that NATO was working “hard and actively” to address Turkey’s concerns “as soon as possible”.
On Tuesday, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin was reported to have said that the Nordic nations’ offer could “freeze” if an agreement with Turkey was not reached before the NATO summit.