Turkey’s security concerns have once again been made clear and concrete steps are expected in this regard, said Presidential Advisor Ibrahim Kalin after a meeting of the delegations in Ankara. Otherwise the process cannot move forward.
The Scandinavian countries should take action against propaganda and financing of “terrorist organizations” such as the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG, Kalin said. Turkey is currently the only NATO member to publicly block the start of the process of admitting the two Nordic countries into the defense alliance.
“Of course we don’t send any money to terrorist organizations and we don’t send weapons either.”
Ankara justifies its position with the alleged support of Finland and Sweden for “terrorist organizations”, referring to the PKK, the Syrian YPG and the Gülen movement. While the PKK is on the list of terrorist groups in the US, EU and Turkey, the YPG and the movement of the US-exiled Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen are not. The latter blames Turkey for the attempted coup in 2016. The YPG – US ally in the Syrian civil war – sees Ankara as an offshoot of the PKK.
The Swedish government rejected Turkey’s accusation of supporting terrorist organizations. “Of course we don’t send any money to terrorist organizations and we don’t send weapons either,” Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said at a press conference in Stockholm on Wednesday.
After a Turkish military offensive against the Kurdish militia YPG in Syria in 2019, Sweden, Finland and Germany, among others, restricted arms exports to Turkey. Kalin has now called for the restrictions to be lifted again. As a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Finland and Sweden want to join the western military alliance.
Baerböck confident about NATO admission of Sweden and Finland
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had previously expressed her confidence that Sweden and Finland could soon be admitted to NATO, despite objections from Ankara. “We will welcome Finland and Sweden to our alliance,” said the Green politician on Wednesday in Kristiansand, Norway, after meeting her counterparts from Norway and Lithuania at the Baltic Sea Council. She believes that Turkey will soon give up its reservations about joining NATO.
Sweden and Finland have long been part of the military alliance without being a formal member, said Baerbock. “We all have legitimate security interests, but it is equally clear to everyone in NATO that this is an important moment in history and we have a shared responsibility,” she said. The alliance will only get stronger with this expansion.
Norway’s Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt was also optimistic that the Turkish government’s concerns could be dispelled. “It is very important for Norway to let Sweden and Finland into NATO, and I think this issue can be resolved,” said Huitfeldt.
Source: Nachrichten
