President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkiye (Turkey) has warned that if Sweden and Finland do not keep their promises, they could prevent them from joining NATO again.
According to the Associated Press, Erdogan emphasized on the 30th of last month, local time, the last day of the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, “First of all, Sweden and Finland must fulfill their obligations, which is already in the document.” “If we do not implement this, of course we will not even bring (a motion to ratify the agreement) to the parliament,” he said.
Although given a clue, it again hinted at the possibility of blocking the two countries’ accession to NATO just two days after Sweden and Finland withdrew their refusal to join NATO.
Earlier, on the 28th of last month, Turkiye held summit meetings with Finland and Sweden and signed a memorandum of understanding supporting NATO membership.
Turkiye has been opposed to joining NATO, saying Sweden and Finland support the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish faction in Turkiye, which the country has defined as a secessionist and terrorist organization. However, these countries withdrew their position of refusing to join as they agreed to take specific procedures for extradition of PKK-related persons and lift the arms export ban imposed on Turkiye in 2019.
[사진 출처 : AFP=연합뉴스]
