No reason for Türkiye not to approve Sweden’s NATO bid: FM
Turkey can start ratifying Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership applications, according to Sweden’s foreign minister, as the two Nordic nations “have fulfilled the commitments” they agreed with Ankara.
“We believe we have now reached a point where Sweden and Finland have done what we committed to in this (trilateral) memorandum and it is time for the Turkish parliament to start the ratification process,” Tobias Billström told Reuters on Tuesday in an interview. alongside the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
“We believe very strongly that we have done what was requested and we see no reason why ratification should not begin.”
Billström’s statements came amid escalating tensions between Ankara and Stockholm.
For the past week, the Nordic country has aroused the wrath of Türkiye by failing to take legal action after a group of PKK supporters hung a picture of Erdoğan in the capital during a provocative demonstration, which many officials condemned as “racist propaganda” and claimed was a “concrete display” of Sweden’s failure to follow. to its NATO agreement.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the EU, the UK and the US and is responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
Since they officially applied for membership in May 2022, spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland have striven and fought to secure Turkey’s approval to join the bloc. The Turkish government objects to their accession due to security concerns, namely “harboring and tolerating” terrorist groups such as the PKK and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
A memorandum of understanding signed by the parties during a NATO summit in Madrid stipulates that the two countries take concrete steps to address these concerns, increase their crackdown on terrorist organizations such as the PKK and FETÖ, and deport people suspected of terrorism-related crimes. .
Türkiye has provided a list of wanted individuals to Sweden and expects the Scandinavian nation to take swift action to demonstrate that its demands are met.
To win Ankara’s hard-earned approval, Stockholm extradited three people, including a PKK terrorist member, to Türkiye in early December. Ankara welcomed the development but said it was “not enough” for a green light. As of the new year, Sweden has enacted a constitutional amendment that enables “greater opportunities to use legal means to limit freedom of association for groups that engage in or support terrorism.” The country is also expected to implement further changes to improve the fight against terrorism on July 1.
Türkiye has praised these steps taken by Sweden and some others by Finland but says countries must do moreespecially in the wake of the provocative demonstration by PKK supporters who directly threatened the Turkish president and another court ruling against the extradition of four other suspected terrorists.
“No major problems” for Finland
Meanwhile, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has claimed there were “no major problems” with her country’s accession to NATO, “maybe some with Sweden.”
The process should have been faster, she told a panel in Davos, adding that both countries are fully prepared and have checked all the boxes.
When asked if there are any obstacles, such as Turkey’s objections over its security problems, she said: “There are not so many problems with Finland, maybe some with Sweden. But from our perspective, it is very important that Sweden and Finland are going to NATO together because we share the same security environment.”
“We are still waiting for the two countries. One of them is Hungary, which will ratify as soon as their parliamentary term begins,” Marin said.
“Türkiye, that is another matter. We discussed and agreed at the NATO summit on the steps that we will take and we have taken those steps. Now we are waiting for Türkiye to ratify,” she noted.
Plans for more calls
At the same time, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar this week also repeated Ankara’s calls to Sweden and Finland to fulfill their commitments according to the memorandum.
He also said plans were underway for Swedish Defense Minister Pal Johnson’s potential visit to Türkiye.
“We are monitoring the process and the following developments will decide (the meeting),” informed Akar.