Erdogan: Turkey will approve Swedenʼs entry into NATO when the European Union opens the way for Ankara to join

Author:
Liza Brovko
Date:

Turkish President Recep Erdogan said the European Union must clear the way for Ankara to join the bloc before the Turkish parliament approves Swedenʼs bid to join NATO.

Reuters writes about it.

Erdogan called on countries "that have made Turkey wait at the door of the EU for more than 50 years" to open the way to the bloc so that his country would allow Sweden to join NATO "as it did for Finland". Recep Erdogan plans to further voice such a position at the NATO summit in Vilnius.

Turkeyʼs application to join the European Union has been frozen for many years after membership negotiations began in 2005, when Erdogan was in his first term as prime minister. Relations between Ankara and EU members cooled after a failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016, but have now improved. Earlier, the EU criticized Turkey for human rights violations and lack of rule of law.

The Turkish president added that everything depends on the implementation of the agreement reached last summer at the Alliance summit in Madrid, saying that no one should expect compromises from Ankara.

According to him, Stockholm did not do enough against those whom Turkey considers terrorists, in particular members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workersʼ Party.