NATO: Erdogan warns he can still block Sweden and Finland

Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirms that Turkey's support for the accession of these two countries to NATO is only conditional: it will depend on compliance with the commitments set out in a memorandum.

AP - Burhan Ozbilici

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

The lifting of the Turkish veto on the accession of Sweden and Finland has enabled NATO to officially invite these two states to join the Alliance during a summit in Madrid which ended on Thursday.

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has negotiated a memorandum with the Swedish and Finnish leaders, is already making a caveat: he says that Ankara can always block their membership if his demands are not finally met in his eyes.

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With our correspondent in Istanbul,

Anne Andlauer

Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirms what several Turkish officials had already suggested since the signing of the memorandum with Sweden and Finland: Turkey's support for the accession of these two countries to NATO is only conditional.

It will depend on compliance with the commitments set out in this memorandum.

Tayyip Erdogan thus warned that if Stockholm and Helsinki did not apply the text to the letter, the latter would not be submitted to the Turkish Parliament for ratification.

The Head of State even went further than the letter of the text.

He maintained that Sweden had promised to extradite 73 terrorism suspects to Turkey, while its Minister of Justice had spoken the day before of twenty-one suspects.

The Turkish president, who returns from Madrid crowned with what he describes as a " 

diplomatic victory

 ", also responds to criticism from his main opponents.

Meral Aksener, leader of the ultranationalist Iyi party, had in particular considered that Turkey had obtained no concrete concessions from Sweden and Finland, describing the memorandum as “ 

disgrace

 ”.

Tayyip Erdogan therefore has every interest in putting pressure on the two Nordic states.

To read: End of the NATO summit: the Atlantic Alliance is advancing on all issues

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  • NATO

  • Sweden

  • Finland

  • Turkey

  • Recep Tayyip Erdogan