Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that his country will maintain its principled and firm stance on the membership of Sweden and Finland in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) until they fulfill the pledges made to Ankara.
This came in a speech delivered by Erdogan during his participation today, Saturday, in the opening of the new legislative year in the Turkish Parliament in the capital, Ankara.
"If the promises made to our country are not fulfilled, we will maintain our principled position," he said, noting that the Turkish president has threatened since May to block the two countries' accession to NATO.
"We are watching closely whether the promises made by Sweden and Finland will be kept or not, and of course the final decision rests with our grand parliament," he added.
The Turkish president stressed the importance of the "fight against terrorism", knowing that he accuses the two countries of protecting the militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara classifies as "terrorist organizations."
It is noteworthy that a tripartite memorandum was signed between Turkey, Finland and Sweden at the NATO summit held on June 28 in the Spanish capital Madrid, and the first meeting of the permanent joint mechanism was held on August 26 in the Finnish city of Vantaa.
To date, 28 of the 30 NATO member states have ratified the accession of Sweden and Finland.
It remains for Hungary and Turkey to agree to this, and this approval is transmitted to the parliaments of the two countries.
In a remarkable concession regarding Turkish demands, to ensure its agreement to join the alliance, Sweden announced on Friday that it had re-allowed the export of military equipment to Turkey, knowing that lifting these restrictions was among the conditions set by Ankara.
Lifting arms export restrictions to Ankara is one of Turkey's conditions for Sweden's accession to NATO.
Sweden and Finland applied to join the Western military alliance in mid-May in response to Russia's war against Ukraine, and Turkey objected to their accession, citing Sweden and Finland's support for "terrorist organizations."