Ankara says time is up to ratify Sweden, Finland NATO offers | News
The president’s spokesman says that Sweden must meet the requirements before May, when the polls in Turkey will take place.
The Turkish president’s spokesman says Ankara is running out of time to ratify NATO membership bids from Sweden and Finland before general elections expected in May.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said on Saturday that Turkey’s ratification of the countries’ bid depended on how quickly Stockholm fulfills “fighting terrorism” pledges made as part of a deal with Ankara, warning it could take months.
“Stockholm is fully committed to implementing the agreement signed last year in Madrid, but the country needs six more months to write new laws that would allow the legal system to implement the new definitions of terrorism,” Kalin said at a press conference in Istanbul.
Along with Finland, Sweden signed an agreement with Turkey last year aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to their NATO bid, which was made last May and requires approval from all 30 NATO member states. Both countries applied to join NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
Turkey wants a clearer stance
Ankara has said that Sweden needed to take a clearer stance against what it sees as “terrorists”, mainly Kurdish groups and the organization it blames for an attempted coup in 2016.
Last week, Stockholm said Sweden was confident Turkey would approve its application to join the NATO military alliance, but it could not meet all the conditions Ankara has set for its support.
The Turkish parliament would have to ratify Ankara’s decision on the two Nordic countries’ membership, with a vote on both expected at the same time.
At the same time, Turkish prosecutors have opened an investigation into an incident in Stockholm where a picture of President Erdogan was put up, further strengthening Sweden’s attempt to gain Turkey’s support diplomatically.
The Swedish prime minister told TV4 on Friday that the act was “extremely serious” and he considered it sabotage against the NATO application.
Kalin said the Swedish government must send a clear message to “terrorist organizations that Sweden is no longer a safe haven for them and that they will not be able to raise money, recruit members and engage in other activities”.
“We have a question of time if they want to join NATO before the NATO summit in June,” Kalin added, referring to Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections expected in May.
“Given that Parliament will go into recess some time before the election, you’re looking at a 2-2.5 month time frame to do all this,” he said.