Turkey opposes NATO membership for Finland, Sweden
Istanbul, Turkey - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkey did not have a ‘positive opinion’ on Finland and Sweden joining NATO, throwing up a potential obstacle for the nations’ membership bid.
The leader of NATO-member Turkey spoke ahead of expected confirmations from the Nordic nations on Sunday that they will apply to join the Western military alliance.
Erdogan accused both countries of harbouring ‘terrorist organisations’ in his unfavourable assessment of the membership bids.
“We do not have a positive opinion,” Erdogan told journalists after Friday prayers in Istanbul.
“Scandinavian countries are like a guesthouse for terror organisations,” he said.
Turkey has long accused Nordic countries, especially Sweden which has a strong Turkish immigrant community, of harbouring extremist Kurdish groups as well as supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based preacher wanted over a failed 2016 coup.
Erdogan cited a ‘mistake’ made by Turkey’s former rulers who okayed Greece’s NATO membership in 1952.
“We, as Turkey, do not want to make a second mistake on this issue,” he said.
Swedish NATO application,” Sweden’s foreign minister Ann Linde said in a statement to AFP, also noting the ‘Turkish government had not delivered this type of message directly to us’.
Speaking at a Helsinki press conference, Finland’s Pekka Haavisto also said he hoped to meet Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu during the weekend to ‘continue our discussion’. Stockholm and Helsinki have cranked up their international contacts to seek support for their potential bids.
Once a country has decided to apply for NATO membership, the alliance’s 30 members must agree unanimously to extend a formal invitation, followed by membership negotiations.
The final approval could then take place at a NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June. The 30 member states would then have to ratify the decision.
Turkey, which enjoys good relations with Kyiv and Moscow, has been keen to play a mediating role to end the conflict and has offered to host a leaders’ summit.
Ankara has supplied Ukraine with combat drones but has shied away from slapping sanctions on Russia alongside Western allies.
Erdogan’s comments may also raise tensions with France, whose President Emmanuel Macron has said NATO was undergoing ‘brain death’ partly due to Turkey’s behaviour.
Macron has made clear he supports Finland’s bid as does the United States.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday Washington was ‘ working to clarify Turkey’s position’, adding there was ‘broad support’ for the two countries’ joining the alliance.