Turkey's talks with Sweden and Finland on NATO Bid 'not at desired level'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that trilateral discussions with Sweden and Finland regarding their NATO membership did not happen at the desired level. "Unfortunately, the talks held by our delegation with Finland and Sweden were not at the desired level," Erdogan told reporters in Ankara after he concluded his tour to Azerbaijan, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Sunday. A spokesman for Turkish leader, Ibrahim Kalin, said that Ankara was  "not under time pressure to solve this issue [Sweden and Finland’s NATO bid] until that summit.”

"We are determined to ensure that the process moves forward on a solid basis and that it progresses depending on the steps taken to meet Turkey's security concerns," Kalin reportedly said. 

Turkey still opposing Sweden and Finland’s NATO bid over PKK terrorists' extradition 

Ankara, which joined NATO three years after it was established in 1949, has been opposing Sweden and Finland’s NATO bid due to resentment of the nordic countries' support of the PKK/YPG/PYD Kurdish terrorist organisations. Erdogan had earlier affirmed that while Turkey fully supports NATO's open-door policy based on the Alliance's founding document's Article 10, the two countries had not heeded Turkey's demands to extradite more than 33 terrorists wanted in Ankara for the July 2016 coup.

The PKK, which seeks an independent state in Turkey, had attempted to overthrow Erdogan's ruling government. President Tayyip Erdogan had asserted that NATO must not expect Turkey to approve Baltic nation Sweden and Finland's membership bid without them first extraditing the PKK "terrorists." PKK/YPG/PYD terrorist organisations maintain their headquarters in Damascus, and are also supported by Syria’s Bashar-al-Assad regime, as well as Iran, Iraq, and Libya. Erdogan also recently derided the US for lifting sanctions on regions in Syria that are a stronghold of the nationalist YPG/PKK terror group. Washington labels these what it refers to as ‘militia groups’ as the “allies” in the fight against ISIS/Daesh in Syria. 

"We cannot say 'yes' to the countries supporting terrorism to join NATO," Erdogan said in a statement published by Turkish government.

The Turkish President also said that he will speak with Putin and Zelenskyy on Monday on separate phone calls to encourage the two warring nations to resolve the ongoing conflict via diplomatic means.  "I will have phone calls with both Russia and Ukraine on Monday. We will continue to encourage the parties to use the channels of dialogue and diplomacy," Erdogan's office quoted the Turkish President as saying in a tweet.