Sweden and Finland must keep their promises to join NATO – Ankara – RT World News
The two Nordic countries must first fulfill the promises made to Turkey in an agreement reached to lift its veto on their candidacy for NATO, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday. If Finland and Sweden do not fulfill their promises, their candidacies will not be sent to the Turkish parliament at all, he warned.
« The main thing is that promises come true » Erdogan said at a press conference after a NATO summit in Madrid. « Sweden and Finland should do their homework first and those are in the text… But if they don’t, it’s of course out of the question for the ratification to be sent to our parliament,” he added. he added.
A country’s application for membership must be supported by all NATO member states and ratified by their parliaments before the membership process can really begin.
Turkey and the two Nordic countries have reached a 10-point agreement, involving the persecution of groups that Ankara considers to be « The Terrorists » and the lifting of the arms embargo earlier this week.
From now on, Turkey will closely monitor whether or not Sweden and Finland keep their promises, such as the extradition of dozens of individuals wanted by Ankara. « Sweden has promised to extradite 73 terrorists to Turkey », Erdogan said.
« This is the start, we will closely monitor the implementation of the promises made in the memorandum and take action accordingly, » he added, hailing the deal as a major milestone « diplomatic victory » for Turkey.
Finland and Sweden rushed to join the US-led NATO bloc amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine that erupted in late February. While the two nations have maintained close ties to the alliance for decades, they have so far remained neutral countries.
Their NATO campaign, however, hit a stalemate when Turkey raised concerns about the two nations harboring members of groups it deems to be « The Terrorists. » The groups include the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the so-called Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization (FETO), an organization allegedly led by US-based Turkish cleric Gulen. Ankara believes FETO is the culprit behind the failed 2016 attempt to overthrow Erdogan.
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