Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Sweden will no longer count on his country’s support in its NATO bid, after Stockholm authorized an anti-Turkish demonstration on Saturday.
“Sweden cannot expect our support [na adesão] to NATO. If you do not respect the religious beliefs of the Republic of Turkey or Muslims, you will not receive any support from us.”assured the Turkish president, who set several conditions for approving the accession of Sweden and Finland to the Atlantic Alliance, including measures against Kurdish movements based in these Nordic countries.
On Friday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry had already summoned the Swedish ambassador in Ankara to protest against permission for a demonstration planned by an extremist group to Stockholm, aiming to burn the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital. .
Due to the demonstration in Stockholm the previous day, Turkey also canceled a visit by the Swedish defense minister on Saturday.
Turkey demanded concrete measures from Sweden and Finland against groups of Kurdish activists based in these Scandinavian countries as a precondition for supporting the application for NATO membership, formalized in May 2021, in the context of the amendment of the European security framework, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Turkish government had already recently protested the destruction of an effigy of Erdogan at another demonstration, which caused a stalemate in NATO’s enlargement process.
Sweden and Finland depend on the approval of the 30 Atlantic Alliance member states to join the organisation, but for now they only have the approval of 28, as Hungary, in addition to Turkey, has yet to give the ‘green light’.
Source: DN
