/Collage of 24 channels
Turkish President Racep Erdogan on May 29 described his talks with Sweden and Finland about their accession to NATO. He said it didn't go well.
Therefore, it is not known whether these two states will be able to join the Alliance in the near future. The meeting referred to on May 27.
It was hinted that Turkey does not want to rush
The President talked about this with journalists of the Turkish News Agency in his airplane. He then flew away from Azerbaijan.
Unfortunately, the negotiations of our delegation with Finland and Sweden were not at the desired level. Erdogan said.
The press secretary of the Turkish leader, Ibrahim Kalin, also commented on the talks. He said Turkey is “not under time pressure” to rush to resolve the issue.
Pay attention! The two countries applied for NATO membership on 18 May. However, their representatives claim that they thought about it immediately after the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Why Turkey is against the entry of these countries
At first, NATO assured that Sweden and Finland would be able to join them very quickly. However, later everything turned out to be a very problematic issue. After all, Turkey has a certain conflict with these Scandinavian states.
The most critical point in their interaction is that both of the candidate countries have previously declared support for the PKK. Turkey considers it terrorist. The Kurds have been fighting for a long time to create their autonomy, in particular, on part of Turkish territory.
They even imposed sanctions
Their relations were finally spoiled by Turkey's invasion of Syria in 2019. The country has launched hostilities aimed at representatives of the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Sweden and Finland, along with several other EU members, were strongly condemned.
They soon announced that they were imposing an arms embargo on Turkey. It should be noted that even before such a decision was made, the arms trade between Turkey and Sweden with Finland was not too great. However, this diplomatic gesture has now made it possible to state that such restrictions are “against the spirit of the Alliance.”
