Erdogan: As long as I am president of Turkey, I will not allow supporters of terrorism to enter NATO.
The Turkish president told reporters on Sunday that he would not say yes to countries that support terrorism to join NATO as long as he is president.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that talks with Sweden and Finland on the two countries’ accession to NATO were not at the expected level and that Ankara could not respond positively to countries sponsoring terrorism.
“As long as Tayyip Erdogan is President of Turkey, we can definitely not say ‘yes’ to countries that support terrorism to join NATO,” he told reporters after returning from Azerbaijan, Reuters reported.
Earlier, two sources told Reuters that Sweden and Finland’s talks with Turkey on Wednesday had made little progress and it was unclear when more talks would take place.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson on Wednesday denied allegations that Turkey financed terrorist organizations.
“We do not send money or weapons to terrorist organizations,” he told a news conference in Stockholm.
Last Tuesday, the Turkish government released an official list of five requests from Sweden and Finland, which, if these requests are met, will support the two Nordic countries in NATO membership.
The Ankara government has called for “tangible guarantees” from Stockholm to sever all ties with groups such as the PKK, which has been declared a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
The governments of Finland and Sweden announced last week their decision to join NATO, which has opened a new front in the confrontation between Russia and the West. As one of the Scandinavian countries, Finland has a thousand kilometers of border with Russia and is the first country to share a border with Russia that joins NATO.
