Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. File photoANKARA, May 23.Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party will hold a consultation and evaluation meeting chaired by President Tayyip Erdogan in early June to set a new roadmap for the country's development and NATO expansion, the Sabah reported on Monday. 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 NATO, because it cannot believe their assurances about relations 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 an alliance without the unanimous approval of all its members.The Turkish Foreign Minister held talks with the NATO Secretary General»The Justice and Development Party will hold a consultation and assessment meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on June 3, 4 and 5. The meeting will address important topics on Turkey's agenda, from the 2023 elections to the economy, from foreign policy to the issue of refugees,» the newspaper writes. The publication reports that «the meeting, which is scheduled to begin with President Erdogan's opening speech, will later continue behind closed doors.» «It will be discussed in detail how a new roadmap for Turkey's development will be formed,» the newspaper reported. It is clarified that «the agenda of the meeting will include issues related to Turkey's foreign policy and NATO expansion.» agenda of the meeting,» the newspaper reported. The next general elections in the country — both presidential and parliamentary — will be held in Turkey in June 2023. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had previously formed the People's Alliance. Earlier, the head of the Turkish nationalists, Devlet Bahceli, said that the current President of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, would be the candidate of the People's Alliance in the upcoming elections. In the previous early presidential elections in 2018, Erdogan won in the first round, having secured the support of over 52% of voters. As a result of the parliamentary elections, which took place simultaneously with the presidential elections, the People's Alliance, which gained 53.6%, was formed by the National Movement Party and the ruling Justice and Development Party. Recent polls conducted by independent research organizations show that a high inflation and the depreciation of the Turkish lira have severely eroded incomes, especially for workers and middle-class Turks, who form the ruling party's electoral base. Despite repeated calls from opposition parties for early elections, Erdogan said that the presidential and parliamentary elections will take place as planned in June 2023. />NI: Turkey's stance on NATO expansion will weaken alliance for decades
