14 June 2023; MEMO: Turkiye's President has dashed Sweden's hopes for NATO membership, saying that it should not expect any positive results until it prevents anti-Turkiye protests from taking place on Swedish soil.
According to media reports, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told journalists on a flight returning from Azerbaijan yesterday that Stockholm should not expect a change in Ankara's stance on its NATO membership bid at the military alliance's summit next month unless the Nordic country cracks down on protests against Turkiye.
His comments come after his talks with NATO's Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, earlier this month on the same issue, during which a protest by supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) – designated as a terrorist group by Turkiye, the United States and European Union – was held in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, on that same day.
"While Stoltenberg was expressing these views to us, unfortunately, at that time, terrorists were demonstrating in the streets again in Sweden," Erdogan told reporters on the plane. "Now, we cannot approach this work positively within this table."
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year and Moscow's apparent threats to Sweden and Finland, the two Nordic countries applied to join the NATO alliance in an effort to ensure their protection.
READ: Sweden to extradite self-proclaimed PKK supporter to Turkiye
Turkiye and Hungary – both NATO members – denied those requests, however, with Ankara demanding assurances from them both that they would reform and implement counter-terrorism laws that crack down on PKK influence in their territories and extradite certain dissident figures.
While Turkiye approved Finland's bid in March this year, it has continued to block Sweden's bid due to the country's refusal to extradite some individuals and prevent anti-Turkiye protests. Stockholm, meanwhile, insists that it has done enough to satisfy Ankara's demands, saying that preventing protests would infringe on freedom of expression and that extraditing figures must be approved by its judiciary.
In a meeting between Turkish, Swedish, Finnish and NATO officials today, though, Erdogan commented on those recent legal reforms by Stockholm and referred to them as insufficient. "This is not only a matter of a law amendment or a constitutional change. What is the job of the police there? They have legal and constitutional rights, they should exercise their rights. The police should prevent these [protests]."
The Turkish leader's remarks come before the next NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, is set to take place next month, where hopes for Sweden's membership into the alliance was expected to be approved.
