Turkey reiterates security concerns to Nordic states
Concrete and serious steps need to be taken to address Turkey’s security concerns regarding terrorism ahead of Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, President Erdoğan underlined while speaking to the Nordic countries’ leaders
PRESIDENT Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed Turkey’s security concerns with the leaders of Sweden and Finland in phone calls on Saturday as the debate on the two countries’ NATO membership bids continues.
According to a statement released by the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications, Erdoğan informed Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson about Turkey’s concerns regarding the activities of the PKK, its Syrian offshoot the YPG and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in Sweden, and said that the NATO-candidate country should stop providing financial, political and weapons support to such groups.
The Turkish president said Ankara has always supported NATO’s open-door policy while stressing that solidarity is essential for the security of member countries, as well as collective security.
Ankara expects Stockholm to take serious steps to address its concerns with regards to the terrorist groups, he said, adding that the claim that PKK/YPG terrorists were fighting the Daesh terrorist group did not reflect reality.
Sweden’s arms restrictions on Turkey was another subject brought up during the conversation. Erdoğan said Turkey’s crossborder military campaigns in northern Syria were a necessity due to the terrorist threat in the region, and Ankara expects Stockholm to lift the restrictions.
Andersson in a tweet appreciated the call, and said that Sweden looked forward “to strengthening our bilateral relations, including on peace, security and the fight against terrorism.”
Meanwhile, the president also spoke with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinistö in a phone call. He noted that a stance that ignores factors posing security threats to an ally does not fall in line with the spirit of the alliance.
“An open and direct phone call with President @RTErdogan,” Niinisto said on Twitter. “I stated that as NATO Allies Finland and Turkey will commit to each other’s security and our relationship will thus grow stronger. Finland condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Close dialogue continues.”
The president also spoke with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who acknowledged Turkey’s security concerns as an important ally.
PKK SUPPORTERS URGE SWEDEN TO HALT NATO BID, REJECT ANKARA’S DEMANDS
PRESIDENT Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed Turkey’s security concerns with the leaders of Sweden and Finland in phone calls on Saturday as the debate on the two countries’ NATO membership bid is continuing.
According to a statement released by the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications, Erdoğan informed Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson about Turkish concerns regarding the activities of the PKK, its Syrian offshoot YPG and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in Sweden, and said that the NATO-candidate country should put an end to its financial, political and weapon support to such groups.
The Turkish president said Ankara has always supported NATO’s open-door policy, and that solidarity was essential for the security of member countries, as well as collective security.
Ankara expects Stockholm to take serious steps to address its concerns with regards to the terrorist groups, he said, adding that the claim that PKK/YPG terrorists were fighting the Daesh terrorist group, did not reflect reality.
Sweden’s arms restrictions on Turkey was another subject brought up during the conversation. Erdoğan said Turkey’s crossborder military campaigns in northern Syria were a result of a necessity caused by a terrorist threat in the region, and Ankara expects Stockholm to lift the restrictions.
Andersson in a tweet appreciated the call, and said that Sweden looked forward “to strengthening our bilateral relations, including on peace, security and the fight against terrorism.”
Meanwhile, the president also spoke with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinistö in a phone call. He noted that a stance that ignores factors posing security threats to an ally does not fall in line with the spirit of the alliance.
“An open and direct phone call with President@RTErdogan,” Niinisto said on Twitter. “I stated that as NATO Allies Finland and Turkey will commit to each other’s security and our relationship will thus grow stronger. Finland condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Close dialogue continues.”
The president also spoke with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who acknowledged Turkey’s security concerns as an important ally.
“Unless Sweden and Finland clearly show that they will stand in solidarity with Turkey on fundamental issues, especially in the fight against terrorism, we will not approach these countries’ NATO membership positively,” Erdoğan told Stoltenberg in a phone call, according to the presidency.
On Twitter, Stoltenberg said he spoke with Erdoğan “of our valued ally” on the importance of “NATO’s open door”.
“We agree that the security concerns of all allies must be taken into account and talks need to continue to find a solution,” he said.
On Thursday, Stoltenberg said Turkey’s “concerns” were being addressed to find “an agreement on how to move forward”.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February has shifted political opinion in both Nordic countries in favour of joining the Western military alliance. Sweden and Finland, while solidly Western, have historically kept a distance from NATO as part of longstanding policies aimed at avoiding angering Russia.
But the two nations moved ahead with their membership bid in shock over their giant neighbour’s invasion of Ukraine, which had unsuccessfully sought to join NATO.
Membership requires the consent of all 30 existing members.
Meanwhile, Swedish and Finnish leaders were on Thursday welcomed by U.S. President Joe Biden, who strongly backed their bid to join NATO. Turkey’s approach to the NATO accession process of Sweden and Finland is not a bilateral issue between Washington and Ankara, the U.S. State Department said on Friday after several analysts accused Turkey of leveraging its position to improve ties with the U.S., but added that Washington was speaking with Ankara and it remained confident that the dispute would be overcome.
“The question of Turkey’s approach to the NATO accession of Finland and Sweden, that is not a bilateral question between the United States and Turkey,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a telephone briefing.
His comments are similar to those by U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who on Thursday told reporters, “this is not a U.S. issue,” but added that Washington wanted to see it resolved and it was ready to take action to be supportive.
“For their parts, Finland, Sweden are working directly with Turkey, but we’re also talking to Turkey about this issue,” Price said, but did not give further details about the talks aside from saying Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu had held a “good, constructive” conversation on Wednesday in New York.
“We remain confident that Turkey’s concerns will be addressed, and that we’ll be able to reach consensus as an alliance on the accession process for Finland and Sweden,” Price added.
CONCRETE STEPS
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, therefore Turkey in the past few weeks has been underlining it expects concrete steps to address PKK presence in Finland and Sweden before the two countries enter NATO.
Turkey also accuses Sweden and Finland of harboring the followers of FETÖ, which was behind the 2016 military coup attempt.
Ankara’s main demands are for the Nordic countries to halt support for the PKK and the YPG groups present on their territory, and to lift their bans on some sales of arms to Turkey. Ankara says the arms ban is inappropriate for prospective members of a security pact.
Several European countries, including Sweden and Finland, restricted arms exports to Turkey following the country’s cross-border operation into northeast Syria in 2019 with the stated goal of clearing the border area of terror groups.
“Supporting the terrorist organizations that Turkey is fighting against and not surrendering the terrorists unfortunately damages the ground of strategic partnership and alliance,” Fahrettin Altun said on Saturday during a panel in New York.