Turkish television quoted unnamed Turkish diplomatic sources as saying that the meeting on the tripartite mechanism between Turkey, Sweden and Finland related to the accession of the latter two to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was postponed, while Finland hinted at the possibility of joining the alliance alone, excluding at the same time from Ankara a decision regarding accession before Turkish elections.
The agency, "Ria Novosti," quoted a source it described as a source, postponing negotiations between Turkey, Sweden and Finland regarding the request to join NATO for an indefinite period at the request of Ankara.
It is noteworthy that the meeting on these negotiations was scheduled to be held in Brussels in early February.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that it is clear that the administration in Sweden, which allowed the burning of a copy of the Qur’an in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, is not waiting for Turkey’s support for its membership application in the alliance.
Erdogan added, during a press conference held after chairing a meeting of his government in Ankara, that Sweden could no longer count on Turkey's "support" after this incident, which is the second between the two countries since the beginning of the year, after pro-Kurdish activists staged anti-Syrian demonstrations in mid-January. to Turkey.
For his part, Finland's Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto indicated in a press conference that Helsinki should study the possibility of joining NATO without Sweden, which has now reached a dead end in its quest to obtain Ankara's approval after a series of anti-Turkish demonstrations in Stockholm and the burning of a copy of the Koran in front of the embassy. Turkish.
Haavisto said in a statement to the public television network "Yeli" today, Tuesday, that these protests constitute an "obstacle" to candidacy for NATO membership, and that "the protesters are playing with the security of Finland and Sweden."
He said that joining the two northern European countries jointly remains the "first option", but "we must of course assess the situation and study whether something that happened will prevent Sweden from moving forward in the long run," considering at the same time that "it is still too early to take a position." ".
But Haavisto added that Turkey is unlikely to decide whether to accept Finland and Sweden's requests to join NATO until after the Turkish elections scheduled for May this year.
Demonstrations against NATO and Turkey in the Swedish capital on January 21 (Getty Images)
In turn, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bilstrom confirmed that his country has fulfilled its obligations towards Turkey under a tripartite agreement between Sweden, Finland and Turkey to pave the way towards joining NATO, according to the Swedish News Agency.
"We have fulfilled all the terms of the agreement and we will continue to implement it," he said during a session of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, noting that his country will seek, during its presidency of the European Union, to strengthen cooperation with NATO.
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country strongly supports Finland and Sweden on their way to joining NATO, explaining during his meeting with Finland's President Sauli Niinisto in the capital, Kyiv, that Ukraine would like not to go down this path alone tomorrow.