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Sweden must do its part on terrorism for NATO bid: Turkish president

15 June 2023 02:26 (UTC +04:00)

If Türkiye is expected to respond to Stockholm's expectations of accession to NATO, Sweden must also do its part on the terrorist group PKK ahead of next month’s NATO summit, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, APA reports citing Anadolu.

"The NATO summit will be held in Vilnius. Hopefully, unless something extraordinary happens, I will attend," Erdogan told reporters Tuesday, ahead of a meeting of a joint mechanism of Türkiye, Sweden, and Finland set for Wednesday in the Turkish capital Ankara.

"The expectations of Sweden do not mean that we will comply with these expectations. In order for us to comply with these expectations, first of all, Sweden must do its part,” he said on the presidential plane, returning from foreign visits.

In a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Istanbul in early June, he related, he had told the alliance chief, “If you expect us to respond to Sweden's expectations, first of all, Sweden must erase what this terrorist organization has done. While we were expressing these to Stoltenberg, at that time, unfortunately, terrorists were demonstrating in the streets again in Sweden,” referring to the PKK, which has taken some 40,000 lives in its decades-long terror campaign in Türkiye.

Erdogan also called on Stockholm to use Swedish police to prevent PKK terrorists from operating in the country.

"What do the police do? The job of the police force is to stop them. ... There are already rights given to the police force in laws and constitutions. Use these rights. (But maybe) you will not use these rights, then tell us: 'Come and accept Sweden into NATO.'

"Where is NATO's counter-terrorism leg? NATO has to deal with this once. After having not dealt with this, we cannot treat them (Sweden) as the blue-eyed boy in Vilnius," Erdogan said.

He added that Akif Cagatay Kilic, his chief adviser, on Wednesday will chair a meeting where he will stress: "This is the opinion of our president, definitely don’t expect anything different in Vilnius."

The fourth meeting on a permanent joint mechanism between Türkiye, Finland, Sweden, and NATO started in the Turkish capital Ankara on Wednesday.

The meeting comes before the NATO leaders’ summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11-12.

Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership soon after Russia launched a war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Although Türkiye approved Finland's membership to NATO, it is waiting for Sweden to abide by a trilateral memorandum signed last June in Madrid to address Ankara's security concerns on terrorism.

Seeking to win Türkiye’s greenlight for membership, a new Swedish anti-terror law, which came into effect this month, allows authorities to prosecute individuals who support terror groups.

Several countries have said they hope Türkiye will approve Sweden's bid ahead of the NATO summit next month.