On Monday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Swedish and Finnish delegations should not bother coming to Ankara to convince Turkey to approve their NATO bid.
Last week Turkey surprised its NATO allies by saying it would not support the membership of Sweden and Finland positively, citing their history of hosting members of groups Ankara deems terrorists as the main reason.
On Monday, Erdogan repeated that Turkey doesn’t approve their bids to join NATO. He also called Sweden a “hatchery” for terrorist organisations and added that their parliament was full of terrorists.
“Neither of these countries have a clear, open attitude towards the terrorist organisations,” Erdogan said. “How can we trust them?” “They are coming to Turkey on Monday. Are they coming to convince us? Excuse me, but they should not tire themselves,” Erdogan said about the planned visit.
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If the two countries join NATO, “It would become a place where representatives of terrorist organisations are concentrated”, said Erdogan.
Ankara says Sweden and Finland harbour people it says are linked to groups it deems terrorists, namely the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and followers of Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.
Erdogan also said Turkey would oppose the NATO bids from those who imposed sanctions. Sweden and Finland had slapped arms export embargoes on Turkey after its Syria incursion in 2019.
The United States and NATO said that they are confident that the membership of Finland and Sweden would not hold up Turkey.
Diplomats said Erdogan is under pressure to yield as Finland and Sweden would significantly strengthen NATO in the Baltic Sea.
Turkey wants negotiations with the Nordic countries
On Saturday, President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said that Turkey has not shut the door to Finland and Sweden joining NATO but wants negotiations with the Nordic countries and a crackdown on what it presumes as terrorist activities, primarily in Stockholm.
“We are not closing the door. But we are basically raising this issue as a matter of national security for Turkey,” Ibrahim Kalin, the president’s top foreign policy advisor, told in an interview in Istanbul.
Two Nordic countries seeking membership and NATO members were surprised by the remarks made by Erdogan as he said that Turkey couldn’t support enlarging the alliance because Sweden and Finland were “home to many terrorist organisations”.
“The militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) – designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – was fund-raising and recruiting in Europe,” said Kalin. In particular, its presence is “strong and open and acknowledged” in Sweden.
“What needs to be done is clear: they have to stop allowing PKK outlets, activities, organisations, individuals and other types of presence to…exist in those countries,” Kalin said.
“NATO membership is always a process. We will see how things go. But this is the first point that we want to bring to the attention of all the allies as well as to Swedish authorities,” he added. “Of course, we want to discuss and negotiate with Swedish counterparts.”
Mutual Point of View
The second-largest military in NATO, Turkey has officially supported the enlargement of NATO since it joined the U.S.-led alliance. However, it has criticised Baltic states and other European countries for handling organisations that have been deemed terrorist groups by Turkey for years.
Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty says an attack on any NATO country should be seen as an attack. However, while Finland and Sweden have long had close relations with NATO, they are not covered under Article 5. Hence, their security isn’t guaranteed by NATO.
“Turkey has criticised Russia’s invasion, helped arm Ukraine – which is not in NATO – and tried to facilitate talks between the sides but opposes sanctions on Moscow. It wants NATO to address the concerns of all members, not just some,” Kalin said.
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Asked whether Turkey risked being too transactional at a time of war, and when Finnish and Swedish public opinion favours NATO membership, he said: “One hundred percent of our population is very upset with the PKK and FETO (Gulenist) presence in Europe.”
“If they (Finland and Sweden) have a public concerned about their national security, we have a public equally concerned about our security,” he said. “We have to see this from a mutual point of view,” Kalin said Russia’s sharp criticism of Finland and Sweden over their plans was not a factor in Turkey’s position.
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