Turkey makes demands on Sweden for NATO membership
In order to join NATO, Turkey has asked Sweden to end support for “terrorist groups” and an arms embargo. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mentioned these demands to Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Saturday, Erdogan’s office said. During the phone call, both heads of state and government discussed, among other things, Sweden’s application to join NATO, which Turkey had initially blocked.
Sweden must end its “political, financial and military support” to terrorist groups and end “defense industry embargoes” imposed after a Turkish military operation against the Syrian Kurdish militia, the Ankara statement said. These are two “concrete and serious steps”which indicated that Stockholm shares Turkey’s security concerns, Erdogan told the Swedish Prime Minister.
Andersson then told Swedish broadcaster SVT that she had stressed that Sweden welcomed cooperation in the fight against international terrorism and clearly behind the fight against terrorism and the classification of the banned party PKK as a terrorist organization. Erdogan is referring to the Kurdish militia YPG in Syria, which Ankara regards both as terrorist groups. The NATO ally, the USA, on the other hand, works closely with the YPG in Syria.
Because of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Finland had how Sweden applied to join NATO this week. Turkey is the only member that has so far openly opposed an expansion of the military alliance to include the two countries. (dpa)
