New “thunderbolts” against Sweden, Finland, threw Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today that he would not approve Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
Specifically, when asked about the developments around the issue of the two countries’ accession, he said, obviously irritated that the two countries continue to support terrorism as he characteristically said “they do not extradite us terrorists”
“We can not say yes to the inclusion of those who impose sanctions in the defense sector against us,” he said.
The diplomatic missions of Sweden and Finland “do not bother” to travel to Turkey to persuade Ankara to approve their request, the Turkish president added.
The following is the full statement made by Recep Tayyip Erdogan:
“Look, both countries do not have a clear attitude towards terrorist organizations. Moreover, if during this process they say that we are against these terrorist organizations, they have stated that they will not hand over the terrorists they should hand over.
Even if you surrender, a Muslim cannot go through a hole twice (s.s. we do not make the same mistake twice).
Earlier, Greece had left NATO. The administration of that period gave Greece the opportunity to return to NATO. Do the most leading NATO countries provide any kind of support to Greece? Do they create any kind of bases? They create. How will we believe them? Sweden is a hotbed of terrorist organizations. They go to Parliament and make them speak. They even have pro-terrorist members in their parliaments. He says they will come on Monday. Are they coming to convince us? Let them not misunderstand us, but do not bother.
In this process, we will not say yes to the NATO membership of countries that impose sanctions on Turkey. “Because NATO will cease to be a security organization and will be transformed into a place where the representatives of terrorist organizations will gather.”
Ankara pressures on Stockholm and Helsinki
Sweden and Finland have not given their approval to the “repatriation” of 33 people Turkey has requested over alleged links to organizations it considers “terrorist”, state media reported on Monday, following Ankara’s negative stance on a membership of the two countries in NATO.
Ankara claims the men had links to Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters or to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt.
The two countries rejected 19 requests and have left five unanswered, state broadcaster TRT Haber reported, citing the Ministry of Justice, adding that nine requests are still under evaluation.
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