Turkey warns blocking of Nordic NATO bids if agreement not followed
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According to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, "If they [Sweden and Finland] do not comply, we will not accept them to NATO."
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkey declared on Monday that if Sweden and Finland do not follow the recently agreed pact with the Turkish state, they would be barred from joining NATO.
Last week, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled that no progress has been made in Sweden's joining NATO, stressing that Stockholm should take "concrete actions" to meet Ankara's concerns, according to Erdogan's office.
According to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, "If they [Sweden and Finland] do not comply, we will not accept them to NATO."
Ankara agreed to support Stockholm and Helsinki's admission to the organization on Tuesday, signing a memorandum in Madrid on the condition that the Nordic countries provide support and coordination in certain areas, particularly in the fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its proxies.
Read more: NATO tries to resolve Turkish tensions with Sweden, Finland
The execution of the pact will entail the development of a permanent cooperative mechanism comprised of law enforcement, intelligence, and security authorities, and will address Turkey's requests for extradition of PKK and Fethullah Gulen movement accused "terrorists."
The Nordic nations will not offer any help to the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its military wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey accuses of being PKK proxies in Syria, according to the agreement.
Cavusoglu warned that "if a threat" comes from Syria towards Turkey, "we take matters into our own hands," most likely referring to Ankara's upcoming offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Syria to construct a 30-kilometer "safe zone."
The Turkish President stated Thursday that "Sweden had promised to extradite 73 terrorists to Turkey."
The Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson refused to deny the claim.
On May 18, Finland and Sweden submitted their applications to join NATO, abandoning their neutrality policies, implying a shift in the security situation in Europe. Turkey, however, blocked the process due to the two countries' continuous support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has, for long, conducted terrorist activities against Turkey according to the latter.
