“As long as the promises made to our country are not kept, we will maintain our position of principle,” declared the Turkish president, who has been threatening since mid-May to block the accession of the two Nordic states to NATO.
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Turkey won’t ratify Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership bid “as long as the promises” made by the two countries will not be “outfits”Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday, October 1 before the Turkish National Assembly. Recep Tayyip Erdoganwho stressed the importance of “fight against terrorism”accuses the two countries of protecting Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), considered terrorists by Ankara.
To date, 28 Member States – out of thirty – of the Atlantic Alliance have ratified the accession of Sweden and Finland. Only Hungary and Turkey have yet to give their final consent to Parliament.
In a gesture of concession to Turkey, Sweden announced on Friday that it had reauthorized exports of military equipment to Turkey. The lifting of these restrictions was among the conditions set by Ankara. During the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June, Sweden, Finland and Turkey had signed a memorandum opening the access of the two Nordic nations to NATO. But the Turkish president had immediately brandished the threat of a veto in the event that certain conditions were not met.
A Swedish delegation is due to visit Turkey on Wednesday and Thursday for further negotiations. A tripartite meeting had already taken place at the end of August in Finland. One of the most sensitive points concerns dozens of extradition requests from opponents of Ankara – mainly Kurdish activists or the Gulenist movement. Stockholm and Helsinki emphasize that the process remains subject to judicial decisions independent of the executive.