Turkey, Sweden, Finland sign a memorandum on Nordic countries’ NATO bids
MADRID
On Tuesday, Turkey, Finland and Sweden signed a memorandum on the Nordic countries’ NATO bids after four-way talks in Madrid.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson met to discuss the issue and Ankara’s related concerns.
Sweden and Finland formally applied to join the alliance last month, a decision spurred on by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
But Türkiye, a longtime member of the alliance, objected to the membership offerings and criticized the countries for tolerating and even supporting terrorist groups.
Stoltenberg has constantly said that Türkiye has “legitimate concerns related to their fight against the terrorist group PKK and other organizations”, and that the PKK is considered a terrorist organization by NATO, the EU, as well as Finland and Sweden.
In its more than 35-year-old terrorist campaign against Turkey, the PKK has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
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