Erdogan says that Sweden, Finland must fulfill NATO agreement promises | News
The Turkish leader says the deal is “a diplomatic victory”, but Sweden and Finland must first live up to their promises.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Finland and Sweden must keep their promises to Turkey in an agreement to lift their veto on their NATO membership, otherwise ratification will not be sent to the Turkish parliament.
At a press conference in Madrid at the end of a NATO summit on Thursday, Erdogan said that the two Nordic countries must complete legislative changes regarding “terrorists” as soon as possible.
He also said that Sweden had promised to extradite 73 people he described as “terrorists” to Turkey as part of the agreement, even though the memorandum of understanding had no explicit promises of specific extraditions.
“The key is to keep promises,” Erdogan told a news conference.
“In the coming period, we will monitor compliance with the parts of the memorandum and will take our action accordingly,” he said.
“First, Sweden and Finland should carry out their tasks and it is written in the text … But if they do not, it is of course out of the question for ratification to be sent to our parliament,” he added.
Erdogan described the NATO agreement with the two Nordic countries as “a diplomatic victory”, and emphasized that Sweden and Finland must now live up to their promises, including their promise to fight “terrorism”.
“We have strongly emphasized the message that we expect genuine solidarity from our allies, not only in words but also in deeds,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan came from a meeting with Nordic leaders on Tuesday after securing a 10-point agreement under which the two countries promised to join Turkey’s fight against banned armed groups.
According to the signed memorandum, Finland and Sweden promised not to support Kurdish armed groups, the PKK and the YPG, or the network of US-based Muslim researcher Fethullah Gulen, who according to Ankara organized a coup attempt in 2016 and is called a “terrorist”. organization with the acronym FETO.
The implementation of the 10-point agreement would determine whether he would forward their NATO application to the Turkish parliament for ratification, Erdogan said.
Countries wishing to join the NATO alliance must have their membership applications approved by all member states, and ratified by their respective parliaments.
“No losers in a just peace”
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of military alliance freedom and were formally invited to the NATO alliance at Wednesday’s summit in Madrid.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Wednesday that Stockholm will continue to follow local and international laws in its extraditions, and that her country will not extradite Swedish citizens. Asked about the agreement with Turkey, Finnish leader Sauli Niinisto told reporters on Tuesday that his country has not been “presented with any claims for now, as far as I know”.
The Turkish president also on Thursday called for intensified “diplomatic initiatives” to end the war in Ukraine, adding that there were “no losers in a just peace”.
Erdogan said Turkey was trying to pursue a “balanced policy” because of its heavy dependence on Russian energy imports.
Turkey has provided Ukraine with armed drones and other weapons, but Erdogan is also working closely with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The support from our alliance to Ukraine is 100 percent and it is complete. With that support, we need to present a vision of peace to stop the humanitarian crisis and destruction once and for all,” he told reporters in Madrid.