- Turkey wants Nordic states to crack down on Kurdish militants
- Ankara says they have to amend the laws if necessary to meet their demands
- NATO can only expand with the support of all member states
ANKARA / HELSINKI, May 31 (Reuters) – Finland and Sweden should change their laws if necessary to meet Turkey’s demands and gain support for its bid to join NATO, said Turkish Foreign Minister on Tuesday, doubling the threat of vetoing a historic expansion of the alliance.
To the extent that it surprised its allies, Turkey on May 13 opposed Finland and Sweden from joining NATO because they house people linked to groups it considers terrorists, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). , and because they stopped arms exports to Turkey. in 2019. read more The Nordic states applied for NATO membership after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 30 NATO members must approve any enlargement plan.
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Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey, a NATO member for seven decades, would not veto it if its demands were not met, echoing recent comments by President Tayyip Erdogan.
Ankara has said that Sweden and Finland must stop supporting the PKK and other groups, ban them from organizing events in their territory, extradite those requested by Turkey on terrorism charges, and support operations. Ankara military and anti-terrorist forces and lift all arms exports. restrictions.
Finland and Sweden have tried to negotiate a solution and other NATO capitals have said they are confident that the objections raised by Turkey – which has NATO’s second-largest military – can be overcome.
DOCUMENTS
Cavusoglu said Turkey had provided visiting Finnish and Swedish delegations with documents describing the demands during talks in Ankara last week and was waiting for their response, adding that he hoped the Allies would work to resolve the issues. of security.
“Are our demands impossible? No. We want them to stop supporting terrorism,” Cavusoglu told state news agency Anadolu, adding that Ankara was aware that some of its demands would require amendments to the laws. .
“They say it this way, ‘Because we are far from terrorist regions, our laws are designed that way.’ Well, then we need to change them,” he said. “They say the terrorist organization is allowed to organize events and move its rags. Then you have to change your law.”
The Nordic states have said they condemn terrorism and are open to dialogue.
Cavusoglu said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was working on the issue and had proposed holding talks in Brussels with the three countries, but said Ankara made no sense before Stockholm and Helsinki responded. to their written demands.
“We need to have concrete things to discuss,” he said.
Earlier, Erdogan’s communications director Fahrettin Altun told Finland’s largest Helsingin Sanomat newspaper that Turkey should take Turkey’s concerns seriously.
“Finally, the Finnish government has to decide which is more important: to join NATO or to protect such organizations,” he said, referring to the PKK and other groups that Ankara considers terrorists.
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Report by Anne Kauranen in Helsinki and Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Edited by Jonathan Spicer and Gareth Jones
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