Ankara is seeking from Stockholm to fulfill a number of requirements before joining NATO.
Turkey “left open doors” in NATO for Sweden . But Stockholm must show its determination. This was stated by the representative of the President of Turkey Ibrahim Kalin on the air of the Turkish TV channel NTV .
“Now the doors are not closed for Stockholm, but how the process will move forward, its pace and when it will be completed depends on the steps taken by Sweden,” Kalin said.
According to him, today the Swedish authorities are “sincerely and diligently” working to eliminate the claims made by Turkey. At the same time, Ankara believes that Stockholm “does not have enough tools to take legal measures” to solve the Turkish security problem.
In particular, Kalin mentioned the new anti-terrorism law adopted by Sweden at the request of Turkey. It will come into force on June 1, and only after that Ankara will be able to assess how fast Sweden is moving in this matter.
“When they complete this in about two months, they will be able to take more decisive, concrete and fruitful steps to address our security concerns,” the spokesman for the Turkish president said.
Why is Turkey blocking Sweden’s accession to NATO?
Last May, Sweden and Finland, frightened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, decided to abandon historical neutrality and applied to join NATO . The application must be approved by all 30 current members of the Alliance.
Unexpectedly for everyone , Turkey announced that it would not give its consent to the entry of these two countries into NATO, since they allegedly harbor terrorists. Ankara lists Turkish dissidents as such, especially from among the Kurds.
After lengthy negotiations, Turkey agreed in principle to approve the application of Sweden and Finland, but put forward a number of conditions in the field of “fighting terrorism.” Over the past months, the Swedish and Finnish authorities have been trying to comply with these requirements to the best of their ability.
Source: unian.net