Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Sweden has taken “steps in the right direction” in its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but at the same time believes pro-Kurdish separatist protests in the northern European country are “undermining” them. “, according to a statement from his services.
According to the Turkish presidency’s press release, Mr Erdogan made the comments during a telephone conversation with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday, as doubts remain that Ankara will lift its veto in time for the Nordic state to join. to the military alliance ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, next week (Tuesday 11th-Wednesday 12th July).
Sweden and Finland applied to join the military coalition last year, reversing decades of policy of remaining formally non-aligned in the wake of Russia’s military incursion into Ukraine.
Finland is now in.
Sweden, whose admission requires a green light from all members, is still waiting for the approval of two states, Turkey and Hungary.
The Turkish government, made up of Mr Erdogan’s Islamic Democratic Party and a far-right nationalist faction, insists Stockholm must take action against supporters of the armed Kurdish separatist movement the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara, the US and The EU describes it as a “terrorist” organization, as well as a “network” of an exiled Islamic preacher, whom Ankara also considers “terrorist” as it accuses him of being behind the 2016 military coup attempt.
“President Erdoğan noted that Sweden has taken steps in the right direction by amending its anti-terrorist legislation,” according to the announcement of his services.
“But supporters of the terrorist organization (PKK) continue to freely organize demonstrations in which they glorify terrorism, which nullifies the measures taken” by Stockholm, he added, always according to the text of the Turkish presidency.
In recent months there have been demonstrations in Stockholm in which participants waved PKK flags.
Stockholm emphasizes that it has implemented everything it could under a deal with Ankara struck in Madrid last year to assuage Turkish concerns, including pushing through new anti-terror legislation.
Source: Capital.gr