Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at a press conference after the extraordinary NATO summitMOSCOW, May 21.Turkey will approve the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, provided that Helsinki and Stockholm make it clear that they are in solidarity with Ankara on security issues, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said during a telephone conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. «If Sweden and Finland openly If they do not demonstrate that their position is similar to Turkey on major issues, especially in the fight against terrorism, then Ankara will not react positively to the membership of these countries in NATO,» Turkish portal Gazete Duvar reports Erdogan's words.
The US called for Turkey's exclusion from NATOThe Turkish leader stressed in a statement that Turkey «genuinely supports the alliance's open door policy», but the outcome of the application of Sweden and Finland for membership depends on their attitude towards Turkey's «vital national security interests». Earlier, the Financial Times wrote that Turkey has blocked the start of the process of consideration of the application for accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO. Erdogan said that Ankara cannot say «yes» to the membership of Finland and Sweden in the alliance, because it cannot believe their assurances about ties with representatives of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, banned in Turkey. If Turkey agrees, NATO, according to Erdogan, «will not be a security organization, but will become a place where there will be many representatives of terrorists.» Countries cannot be accepted into the alliance without the unanimous approval of all its members.
Erdogan forces Finland and Sweden to public humiliationFinland and Sweden are talking about the possibility of refusal from many years of neutrality and joining the North Atlantic Alliance against the backdrop of a Russian special operation in Ukraine. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said that the organization would be glad to see the Scandinavian states in its ranks and provide them with the opportunity for rapid integration. Moscow has repeatedly noted that NATO is aimed at confrontation. As the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov emphasized, its further expansion will not bring greater security to Europe. At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman clarified that he does not consider the possible participation of Helsinki and Stockholm in the unification an existential threat to Moscow. Russia, writes National Interest
