{"id":1489257,"date":"2022-05-24T07:15:04","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T11:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1489257"},"modified":"2022-05-24T07:15:09","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T11:15:09","slug":"turkey-sets-conditions-for-supporting-nato-membership-for-sweden-and-finland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/turkey-sets-conditions-for-supporting-nato-membership-for-sweden-and-finland\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey Sets Conditions for Supporting NATO Membership for Sweden and Finland"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fturkey-sets-conditions-for-supporting-nato-membership-for-sweden-and-finland%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1489257&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><em>This article was originally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rferl.org\/a\/turkey-conditions-nato-sweden-finland\/31861513.html\">published <\/a>by Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has set out his conditions for Sweden and Finland to earn his backing for their NATO membership bids, saying they must abandon financial and political support for \u201cterrorist\u201d groups threatening Turkey\u2019s national security.<\/p>\n<p>Erdogan spoke by phone separately on May 21 with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, telling Andersson that Stockholm must stop its \u201cpolitical, financial, and military support\u201d for terrorist groups, according to Erdogan\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>Longtime NATO member Turkey has been especially critical of Sweden for showing leniency toward the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey and its Western allies list as a terrorist group, and the followers of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara holds responsible for an attempted coup in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Erdogan has pressed for his concerns to be addressed as Sweden and Finland pursue membership in NATO, which requires the consent of all 30 current member states.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey expects Sweden to \u201ctake concrete and serious steps\u201d that show it shares Ankara\u2019s concerns over the PKK and its Iraqi and Syrian offshoots, Erdogan told Andersson, according to the presidency.<\/p>\n<p>Erdogan also told Andersson to \u201clift restrictions imposed on Turkey in the defense industry,\u201d referring to an arms embargo in place since Sweden and Finland joined other countries in imposing restrictions after a Turkish military offensive in 2019 against the Kurdish militia People\u2019s Defense Units (YPG).<\/p>\n<p>Addressing these areas would show that Stockholm shares Ankara\u2019s security concerns, Erdogan said, according to the statement.<\/p>\n<p>Andersson said she appreciated the call and Sweden hoped to strengthen bilateral relations with Turkey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI emphasized that Sweden welcomes the possibility of cooperation in the fight against international terrorism and emphasized that Sweden clearly supports the fight against terrorism and the terrorist listing of the PKK,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>In his call with Niinisto, Erdogan said turning a blind eye to \u201cterror\u201d organizations posing a threat to a NATO ally was \u201cincompatible with the spirit of friendship and alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Erdogan also said it was Turkey\u2019s natural right to expect respect and support for its \u201clegitimate and determined struggle against a clear threat to its national security and people,\u201d the presidency said.<\/p>\n<p>Niinisto said he held \u201copen and direct\u201d talks with Erdogan and agreed to continue close dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February has shifted political opinion in both Nordic countries in favor of joining NATO.<\/p>\n<p>The two countries shed their longtime neutrality this week by formally submitting applications to join the alliance, and Andersson and Niinisto were welcomed to the White House on May 19 by U.S. President Joe Biden, who strongly backed their bids.<\/p>\n<p>Erdogan also spoke with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on May 21, telling him that Ankara will not look positively on Swedish and Finnish membership unless the two countries clearly show cooperation in the fight against terrorism and other issues.<\/p>\n<p>Erdogan said in a statement after the call with Stoltenberg that he supported NATO\u2019s open-door policy.<\/p>\n<p>Stoltenberg said on\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jensstoltenberg\/status\/1528017651439747073\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>that he and Erdogan \u201cagree that the security concerns of all Allies must be taken into account and talks need to continue to find a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has set out his conditions for Sweden and Finland to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1489257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1489257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1489257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1489257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1489257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}