Turkey intends to continue contacts with Finland and Sweden on the process of their accession to NATO. This was announced on Monday, February 20, by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara following talks with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
At the same time, Cavusoglu added, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already informed NATO head Jens Stoltenberg about his readiness to separately consider Finland’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance.
The issue with Sweden is still open, as the propaganda of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party continues in the country, Ankara said.
“The tripartite memorandum clearly spells out who should take what steps. Last week, President Erdogan told Stoltenberg that we could take a different position on Finnish membership in NATO,” Cavusoglu stressed.
Earlier, on February 18, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for Sweden and Finland to be included in NATO by mid-July 2023.
In the middle of this month, the bloc’s Secretary General reported that the ratification of the documents required for Sweden and Finland to join NATO took place in 28 out of 30 member countries of the alliance, Turkey and Hungary did not ratify the documents. Stoltenberg announced active work on his part on this.
Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO on May 18 last year. In June, Ankara at the Madrid summit presented 10 conditions for lifting the veto on membership in the alliance between Sweden and Finland. One of the points is a proposal to support Turkey in its fight against terrorist organizations recognized by Ankara, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
On February 1, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out Sweden’s NATO membership. The reason was the desecration of the Koran, which was carried out in Sweden by a Danish politician with the approval of the authorities. At the same time, the Turkish leader positively assessed Finland’s chances of joining the alliance, but noted that Helsinki must take an “adequate position” in order to count on Ankara’s support in this matter.
