According to Erdoğan, the Finnish and Swedish diplomatic delegations are also “not to bother” to travel to Turkey to persuade it to accept their NATO applications.
Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan does not intend to accept Finland and Sweden as members of NATO, according to AFP and Reuters and the Turkish state news agency Anadolu.
Erdoğan spoke on the membership of Finland and Sweden at a press conference together with the President of Algeria Abdulmecid Tebbounen with.
“First, we would not say‘ yes ’to those who impose sanctions on Turkey, on membership in NATO, on the Defense League, during this process,” said Erdoğan, according to Anadolu.
As early as April, Turkey demanded the lifting of sanctions on munitions exports to Turkey. Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto (Green) said at the time that there were many countries that had imposed some restrictions on arms exports to Turkey in connection with the actions taken in Syria and that Finland was one of those countries.
Read more: Turkey demands removal of barriers related to munitions exports – Haavisto says Finland is not trading with NATO membership
Erdogan At Monday’s press conference, he also reiterated his position on Friday that Finland and Sweden would support terrorism. On Friday, this said the countries would act as “inns” for members of, among others, the PKK, which the EU has defined as a terrorist organization.
Haavisto burst into patience on Friday.
“This is not going to happen in one day. That is all I can say at this point. Let’s take things step by step, ”he said.
Read more: Erdoğan: Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership cannot be welcomed – Haavisto suffers patience
Haavisto and the Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde met with the Turkish foreign minister at a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting on Saturday Mevlüt Çavuşoğlun. Çavuşoğlu also criticized Finland and Sweden at the meeting, saying that supporting the PKK was “outrageous” and “unacceptable.”
Haavisto said at a press conference on Sunday that Turkey has no reason to worry about the PKK in Finland. Linde said on Saturday that he believed there was a misunderstanding and that Sweden did not support the PKK.
Erdoğan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin however assured on Saturday, Turkey is not trying to block Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership. Kalin said Turkey was only trying to “ensure that the security concerns of all members are taken into account.”
Previously On Monday, the Swedish news agency TT said that Finnish and Swedish diplomatic delegations plan to travel to Turkey to meet with representatives of the Turkish Foreign Ministry and discuss the countries’ NATO membership. According to Erdoğan, delegations “should not bother” to travel to Turkey to persuade Turkey to accept their NATO applications.
“They said on Monday they were coming to Turkey. Are they going to persuade us? I’m sorry, but they shouldn’t bother,” Erdoğan said.
According to TT, diplomatic delegations from Finland and Sweden will soon travel to Turkey to discuss Finland’s and Sweden’s possible NATO membership and Turkey’s negative positions on the matter.
According to Swedish Foreign Minister Linde, the visit to Ankara would take place “within a week”.
HS asked the State Department on Monday night if the information about the visit was correct. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ communications replied to HS by e-mail that “the matter has been discussed at ministerial level”, “the situation is being monitored” and “contacts with Turkey will continue to be closely maintained.”
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