Ankara had released a list of conditions to allow the country’s entry into the Atlantic alliance alongside Finland. The conflict with the Kurds is behind their refusal
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US President Joe Biden on Thursday strongly backed Finland and Sweden’s NATO bids, as the leaders of both countries vowed to address concerns expressed by Turkey about their bid for the defense organization.
Sweden assured Turkey on Wednesday that it does not give “neither money nor weapons” to “terrorist organizations”, at a time when Ankara is threatening to block its entry into NATO for allegedly supporting Kurdish groups.< /p>
“We do not give money or weapons to terrorist organizations,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said during a press conference in Stockholm, trying to eliminate “ambiguities.”
Sweden and Turkey began talks on Wednesday to try to resolve this dispute that prevents NATO from starting accession negotiations with the two Nordic countries.
Accession of new members to the alliance requires the unanimous support of the 30 member countries.
The Prime Minister of Sweden, Magdalena Andersson. TT News Agency/Fredrik Sandberg via REUTERS
Turkey, a member of the Atlantic Alliance since 1952, published on Monday a list of conditions to allow the entry of both countries.
Ankara demands, among others, the extradition of people who are in Swedish territory and that it qualifies as “terrorists” of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its Syrian branch, YPG.
The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by several of Turkey’s allies, has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey, a conflict that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of people.
The Turkish government also accuses Stockholm of having given $376 million in aid to the PKK and the YPG and having supplied them with weapons, “particularly anti-tank weapons and drones.”
Finally, Turkey asks that the Swedish embargo on arms exports to the country, in force since the Turkish offensive in northern Syria in October 2019, be lifted.
Sweden has denied providing financial assistance or military support to Kurdish groups or entities in Syria.
“Sweden is a major humanitarian donor to the Syrian crisis through global allocations to humanitarian actors,” Foreign Minister Ann Linde told the Aftonbladet newspaper.
“Cooperation in northeast Syria is carried out mainly through the United Nations and international organizations,” he said. “Sweden does not provide specific support to the Syrian Kurds or to the political or military structures in northeast Syria, but the population of these areas, of course, participates in these aid projects.”.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attends a ceremony to mark Sweden and Finland’s application for membership in Brussels, Belgium, May 18, 2022. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Pool
Last week, Sweden and Finland submitted their bid for NATO membership, leaving behind decades of military non-alignment in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
< i>(with information from AFP and AP)