Recep Tayyip Erdogan intends to win his showdown against Helsinki and Stockholm.

The Turkish president affirmed Monday evening that Turkey will not “concede” on the adhesion of Sweden and Finland to NATO after the two countries formalized their candidacy.

“How are we going to trust them?

Sweden is the breeding ground for terrorist organizations (…) We will not give up on the NATO membership of those who apply sanctions against Turkey”, insisted the Head of State.

He took the opportunity to again accuse the two Nordic countries of showing leniency towards the Kurdish rebels of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) considered a terrorist organization.

“Convince us?

May [the Swedes] not get tired!

»

Turkey accuses Sweden and Finland in particular of not approving its requests for the extradition of people it accuses of being members of "terrorist organizations", the Turkish state agency Anadolu reported on Monday.

None of the 33 extradition requests sent by Ankara has indeed received a positive response from Stockholm or Helsinki in the past five years, according to the Ministry of Justice quoted by the Anadolu Agency.

Referring to the upcoming visit of a Swedish diplomatic delegation to Turkey to “see how the issue can be resolved”, according to the Swedish Minister of Defence, President Erdogan warned: “They will come to convince us?

They don't get tired!

".

Since Friday, the Turkish president has been threatening to block the accession of the two Nordic countries to NATO, accusing them of serving as a "hostel for PKK terrorists".

However, any enlargement is subject to the unanimous approval of the members of the Alliance.

Conflicting arms embargo

Turkey also accuses Sweden of having suspended all arms sales to it since 2019, in retaliation for the Turkish operation in northern Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had also shown himself to be conciliatory towards Finland on Sunday, but he criticized Sweden for making “provocative” remarks during discussions in Berlin with his peers from the Atlantic Alliance.

He is due to travel to the United States on Tuesday to meet with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Wednesday.

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