Before the critical summit, the sources spoke: they explained Turkey’s demand
As the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, the fate of Sweden, which wants to join NATO with Finland, remains a matter of curiosity.
While NATO member states have approved Finland’s membership, Turkey and Hungary have not yet approved Sweden’s membership. As the international public expected both countries to approve Sweden’s entry ahead of the NATO Summit, some Turkish sources made statements to Bloomberg, a major US media organization.
Turkish officials, who were aware of the process but refrained from commenting, said they hoped some steps would be taken to get Ankara to approve Sweden’s membership.
At the beginning of the accession process, Turkey blocked Sweden’s accession and announced that it was not acting in the spirit of alliance in both the fight against terrorism and the ban on arms sales. In the last period, Sweden lifted the ban on arms sales to Turkey and on June 1 the new anti-terror law came into force.
“SHOW YOU ARE SERIOUS”
While it was stated in the Bloomberg report that these moves would not convince President Erdogan ahead of the NATO Summit to be held in Lithuania, Turkish officials said: “Turkey wants the return of the names it requested from Sweden for get their support before the summit that will take place next month. While it was claimed that Ankara sent a list of approximately 130 people and demanded the extradition of these names, it was claimed that “Turkey wants the extradition and deportation process to begin so that Sweden can show that it is serious about applying these new rules. “
The list includes names from PKK, FETÖ and YPG. The Swedish Foreign Ministry did not comment on the news in Bloomberg.
CALLS ERDOĞAN FROM THE PRIME MINISTER OF GERMANY
Yesterday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz demanded that Turkey approve Sweden’s membership. Scholz said: “I think Sweden should join Finland and be the new ally at the summit. I want Erdogan, the re-elected president of Turkey, to pave the way for this issue, as we decided last year in Madrid.”
Sweden’s membership in NATO is seen as a strategic move against Russia.