Turkey: Erdogan “freezes” Swedish and Finnish membership due to “terrorism” claims | The world | News
Turkey, Finland and Sweden signed an agreement at the NATO summit in Madrid last month to lift Ankara’s veto in exchange for promises of counter-terrorism and arms exports – an important step forward in Helsinki and Stockholm’s journey towards joining the North Atlantic Alliance. On Monday, however, the Turkish president said that he believes that Sweden “does not show a good picture” at the moment.
The Nordic countries decided to join NATO after decades of neutrality following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
What they expected to be a quick process became complicated after Erdogan’s claims that the two countries house members of Kurdish militant groups who they say are terrorists.
In May, President Erdogan asked: “How can we trust them?
“None of these countries have a clear, open attitude to terrorist organization.”
READ MORE: Erdogan orders Turkish Airlines to change its name – because he does not like it
His statements were mainly directed at the militant group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.
Sweden has a large Kurdish diaspora, where society is considered one of the largest outside the Middle East.
In Finland, the Kurdish – speaking population was estimated at just over 15,000 people as of 2020 – less than one percent of the population.
Mr Erdogan specifically accused Stockholm of providing a sanctuary for members of the banned PKK.
Ankara, Moscow and Tehran have met in recent years to discuss Syria as part of the so-called “Astana peace process” to end more than 11 years of conflict there.
All three are involved in Syria, where Russia and Iran support the Damascus regime against its opponents, and Turkey supports rebels.
The summit in Tehran on Tuesday, which will host Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, will also be the first meeting between Erdogan and Vladimir Putin since Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine began in late February.
The Turkish president has for several months offered to meet with the Russian leader and claimed that he is ready to resolve the growing global tensions since the invasion began.
Russian analyst Vladimir Sotnikov told AFP: “The timing of this summit is not a coincidence.
“Turkey wants to carry out a ‘special operation’ in Syria, just as Russia wants to carry out a ‘special operation’ in Ukraine.”
Turkey has launched waves of attacks on Syria since 2016, targeting Kurdish militias as well as Islamic State jihadists and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.