Erdogan: Sweden and Finland must stop supporting terrorists
Extradition of terrorists is mandatory for Ankara to support Swedish and Finnish bids to join NATO.
This was stated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Erdogan again criticized Sweden and Finland for tolerating the continued presence of members of terrorist organizations on their territory. The Turkish head of state said that the extradition of terrorists is mandatory for Ankara to support Sweden and Finland's bids to join NATO.
“We told them: 'If you don't hand over the terrorists who are in your countries, we won't be able to ratify your application for NATO membership in our parliament. They need to extradite about 130 terrorists for their proposals to pass through our parliament, but unfortunately they have not done this yet,” Erdogan said at a meeting with youth representatives on January 15.
He noted that rallies of supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist organization in Ankara, are regularly held on the streets of Stockholm.
Erdogan stressed that Turkey has repeatedly warned the Swedish authorities about the inadmissibility of this.
“But despite our warnings, unfortunately, no action was taken to stop the PKK demonstrations,” the Turkish leader stated. “If they do not take action regarding this situation, this could lead to further increased tension in our relations with Sweden,” the Turkish president added.
Erdogan stressed that terrorist groups threatening Turkey's national security are present not only in Sweden and Finland, but also in Germany, France and the UK.
According to him, this is happening despite the fact that the PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union.
“Turkey will determine its position towards these states accordingly,” he warned.
President Erdogan emphasized that Turkey occupies a special place and position in world politics. According to him, this was clearly evident against the background of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict.
“While everyone was attacking Russia, we didn’t do it. On the contrary, we maintained relations with Mr. Putin in the same way as before,” the Turkish leader said.
Как reported “PolitNavigator”, the United States is putting pressure on Turkey across the straits in order to drag Erdogan into a conflict with Russia.
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