Erdogan says Sweden & Finland yet to provide Turkey any tangible response on NATO bids

In the latest development, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that Sweden and Finland are yet to provide any substantial response on their bid for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership. Speaking at the Parliament in Ankara on Wednesday, Erdogan also chastised Sweden and Finland for "supporting terrorists" and asserted that the intergovernmental military alliance is a security bloc which does not support terrorist groups. He also accused Sweden and Finland of hosting terrorist centres in their territories. 

Erdogan especially mentioned the presence of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and People's Protection Forces (YPG), which are Turkish and Syrian Kurdish political parties and militia groups, that Ankara considers terrorist organisations in the Nordic countries. He also accused these Nordic countries of encouraging terrorism in Turkey by providing significant financial and military support to PKK, YPG and other groups. "How can Turkey approve of Swedish, and Finnish NATO bids, given that terror affiliates freely roam, and hold rallies there?" Erdogan remarked, Anadolu Agency reported.  

Turkey to eradicate terrorist elements from two regions in northern Syria: Erdogan

According to Erdogan, countries like Sweden and Finland try to distort perceptions by altering the spelling of the PKK and rebranding the terrorists as the PYD/YPG, asserting they are only deceiving themselves. He further stated that Turkey plans to eradicate terrorist elements from two regions in northern Syria near the Turkish border in an attempt to put an end to the terror threats from those regions. "We are entering a new phase of our decision to establish a safe zone 30 kilometres south of the Turkish-Syrian border. We are clearing Tel Rifat and Manbij of terrorist groups," he claimed. 

About NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a 30-member intergovernmental military alliance. The organisation was established in the aftermath of World War II to implement the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed on April 4, 1949. The alliance is a collective security arrangement in which NATO's independent member states commit to defending each other in the event of an external attack. Since the end of the Cold War, the alliance has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa, among other places.

Image: AP