‘Türkiye Waiting At Door Of EU For Over 50 Yrs’: Erdogan’s Condition For Sealing Sweden’s NATO Membership

Türkiye stalled Sweden’s NATO accession contending that the country needs to do more to crack down on Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara deems as threats to its national security.

File photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (L) in Ankara, Turkiye on November 08, 2022.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson are expected to meet later Monday in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius ahead of a two-day NATO summit. According to the Associated Press, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billström was optimistic about Türkiye giving up its objection to Swedish NATO membership, saying the Nordic country’s accession is a matter of when not if. Meanwhile, Erdogan said that his country could approve Sweden’s membership in NATO if European Union nations “open the way” to Türkiye’s bid to join the EU.

Billström told public broadcaster SVT that he expects Türkiye to eventually indicate that it will let Sweden join the pact, though he could not say if it would happen at the annual summit. 

“What we are counting on, of course, is to reach a point where we get a message back from President Erdogan that there will be what you might call a green light ... a message that the ratification process in the Turkish Parliament can start,” Billström said, as quoted by AP.

Erdogan Demands EU Membership For Türkiye

As per AP's report, Erdogan linked Sweden’s membership in the Western military alliance and Türkiye’s long-stalled application to become part of the EU for the first time before departing Ankara for the NATO summit that starts Tuesday in Lithuania’s capital.

“Türkiye has been waiting at the door of the European Union for over 50 years now, and almost all of the NATO member countries are now members of the European Union,” Erdogan said Monday, as quoted by AP. “I am making this call to these countries that have kept Türkiye waiting at the gates of the European Union for more than 50 years.”

“Come and open the way for Türkiye’s membership in the European Union. When you pave the way for Türkiye, we’ll pave the way for Sweden as we did for Finland,” he added.

Türkiye Stalled Sweden’s NATO Membership

Previously, Türkiye stalled Sweden’s NATO accession contending that the country needs to do more to crack down on Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara deems as threats to its national security.

Recently, anti-Türkiye and anti-Islam protests, including the burning of the Quran, in Stockholm caused uncertainty that an agreement could be reached before the upcoming NATO summit.

As per AP, the Swedish Foreign Minister emphasised that his country fulfilled its part of a tripartite deal that Sweden, Finland, and Türkiye signed at last year’s NATO summit in Madrid.

“We should consider it as a settled question in the sense that it is not a question of if. In connection with the NATO summit in Madrid last year, Türkiye already gave Sweden status as an invitee to NATO. It is therefore a question of when,” he said, as quoted by AP.

He further mentioned that he expects Hungary, which also hasn’t supported Sweden’s accession, to do so before Türkiye.

Earlier, non-aligned Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finland joined the alliance in April this year.

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