Turkey threatens to disrupt Sweden’s NATO bid
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkey has threatened recently not to support Sweden for NATO membership and accused it alongside Finland of failing to meet Turkey’s demands to fight “terrorism.”
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar accused Sweden and Finland of failing to meet Ankara’s demands to fight “terrorism.”
Finland and Sweden want Turkey’s support for defense and security, but they reject Turkey’s demands to fight terrorism, according to Akar.
In response to the recent protests in Stockholm in which the Koran was burned, in addition to another protest in which an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was hung upside down, Akar said, “Ankara’s attitude to the issues will be very clear.”
In turn, Erdogan warned, in his first official response after a cabinet meeting, “Sweden could not expect Turkey’s support for its NATO membership.”
Swedish foreign minister Tobias Billstrom said, “Sweden will respect the agreement that exists between Sweden, Finland and Turkey regarding our Nato membership.”
Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO on May 18 of the last year prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February but were met with huge rejection from Turkey.
In June 2022, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) announced a trilateral memorandum between Turkey, Sweden and Finland paving the way for Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, the issue that Turkey had rejected under the pretext that they support the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
However, Turkey has previously said that Sweden must first take a clearer position against Kurdish groups it considers terrorists.