Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who will have to fight next week to remain the country’s president, has promised to continue blocking Sweden’s entry to NATO.
In his interview to CNN, Turkey’s president continued accusing Sweden of providing asylum to representatives of terrorist organisations.
He said he cannot support Sweden’s joining of the alliance while the country “continues allowing terrorist group members freely stay in Sweden and walk on the streets in Stockholm”.
“We are not ready for Sweden,” said Turkey’s president, adding that “NATO member states position in the fight against terrorism should be strict”.
In the first round of presidential election in Turkey, Erdoğan received 49.52% of votes. His competitor – Kemal Kilicdaroglu – received 44.88% of votes. The second round of elections is planned for the 28th of May.
Last year, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden decided to end their years-long neutrality and announced plans to join NATO.
In June 2022 NATO officially invited Finland and Sweden to join the alliance. 30 countries commenced the ratification process. Turkey and Hungary slowed this process.
After lengthy negotiations, Turkey, which has the second largest army in NATO, announced it is prepared to ratify the entry of both country into the alliance, but they did announce multiple requirements for the fight against terrorism. Hungary objected as well.
Finland did manage to reach an agreement with both Ankara and Budapest, and became the 31st NATO member state on the 4th of April.
Sweden’s entry to NATO, meanwhile, remains frozen. In March Hungary requested Sweden to cease criticising them. Sweden responded by saying that Stockholm’s official position in the Hungary matter does not differ from that of Finland.
In response to Turkey’s demands, Sweden passed a number of new laws to battle terrorism.
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