Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that his country is not in favor of Finland and Sweden joining NATO, which may suppose the blockade of the entry of these nations to that military alliance despite the fact that the request advances after the publication of an official Swedish report on the advantages in this regard.
The entry of these two Nordic nations was instead supported by the president of the United States, Joe Biden, who spoke by telephone with the Swedish Prime Minister, Magdalena Andersson, and the Finnish president, Sauli Niinisto, as reported by the White House.
Erdogan rejected the possible entry of the Scandinavian countries into NATO for harboring “terrorists”.
“We are currently following developments in Sweden and Finland, but we do not have a positive opinion. The Scandinavian countries are like a guest house for terrorist organizations,” Erdogan told reporters, referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered a “terrorist” group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
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“I go even further, they (terrorists) also have space in their parliaments,” he added.
On numerous occasions, Sweden and other Nordic countries criticized the Government of Ankara for the violation of human rights of the Kurdish minority, in addition to having given asylum to people critical of the Turkish president.
Defending his refusal, the Turkish head of state also pointed out that he does not want “to repeat the same mistake that was made with the accession of Greece”, which in his opinion used the body against Turkey.
“Previous governments made mistakes on NATO with Greece before. We already know Greece’s attitude towards Turkey. We don’t want to make a second mistake,” Erdogan argued after Friday’s Muslim prayer in Istanbul, the news agency reported. AFP.
Turkey’s reaction is the first dissenting voice within the transatlantic military alliance on the possibility of accession of Finland and Sweden, although Ankara insisted from the beginning of the war in Ukraine on maintaining good relations with both countries, on which its economy closely depends.
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Given the need for the unanimous vote of its members, the Turkish attitude is enough to cool down the accession process of the two Nordic nations, backed so far by the majority of NATO members and by the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, who said he was ready to receive them “with open arms”.
After learning of the Turkish refusal, the governments of Sweden and Finland were cautious and they hinted that this position is not definitive and that they will discuss the issue at the informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers, to be held this weekend in Berlin, the Europa Press news agency reported.
After spending several decades outside any military alliance, Helsinki and Stockholm are due to announce their NATO candidacy before next week.
A possibility that was taking hold in both countries after the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, which in his opinion changed the security landscape in Europe.
The president and prime minister of Finland said they are in favor of joining the alliance “without delay” and they must make the country’s candidacy official this Sunday after a meeting of the governing council.
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That same day, the Swedish Social Democratic Party is due to rule on their country’s candidacy and their eventual support would lift the last significant obstacle on the side of Stockholm.
Without expressing a formal recommendation, a report drawn up by the Swedish government with all the parties in Parliament ruled in favor of a Swedish candidacy.
“Sweden’s membership in NATO would have a deterrent effect,” concludes the 40-page document released Friday.
Although Moscow threatened Finland and Sweden with “consequences” in case of accession, the report considers an armed attack highly unlikely, but acknowledges that Russian “provocations” and “retaliation” “cannot be ruled out”.
In this framework, Russia announced that starting tomorrow it will suspend the supply of electricity to Finland.
“We are forced to suspend the importation of electricity as of May 14,” The operator RAO Nordic, a subsidiary of the Russian state group InterRAO, based in Helsinki, said in a statement.
“This is an exceptional situation, without precedent in the 20 years of our history,” added the group, which hopes that the situation will be resolved “soon” and that the supply will resume.
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For its part, the Russian Security Council, a body chaired by President Vladimir Putin, discussed the likely Swedish and Finnish candidacies and “the possible threats to Russia’s security arising from them”, as reported today by the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov.
Asked about a Finnish newspaper’s warning about plans to cut off gas to Helsinki in retaliation, Peskov denied the possibility, calling it “a new journalistic fake news.”
“Gazprom is a reliable consumer for Europe, also for NATO countries,” he said.
Seeing the two hitherto non-aligned countries join NATO, and in particular Finland with its 1,300-kilometre border with Russia, would be a strategic and symbolic setback for Moscow, according to Western analysts.
Report by Marcos Calligaris.
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