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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that he still intends to block Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership.
Erdogan said the meetings held this week with the delegations of the two countries were not “at the expected level”, stressing that no steps have been taken to alleviate Turkey’s security concerns.
“As long as Tayyip Erdogan is in charge of the Republic of Turkey, we can not say ‘yes’ to NATO membership of states that support terrorism,” Erdogan told reporters on Saturday.
Turkey is opposing Sweden and Finland’s NATO aspirations, arguing that the two countries are harboring individuals linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. But Ankara has also said that these countries in 2019 have stopped arms exports to Turkey.
“They are not honest. “We can not repeat the mistake we made in the past in terms of NATO countries supporting such terrorists, after NATO is a security organization,” he said.
Sweden and Finland have said they condemn terrorism and have welcomed the possibility of co-ordinating with Ankara on the issue.
All NATO member states must vote for these two Nordic states to become part of the alliance. Helsinki and Stockholm applied for NATO after the start of the Russian occupation of Ukraine.
Turkey, which has the second largest army in the alliance, has said it will not allow their membership in the alliance unless some steps are taken, including lifting restrictions on arms sales to Ankara.
Erdogan added that he would hold a telephone conversation with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine on May 30./Rel
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