Turkey President Erdogan links Sweden NATO bid to return of 'terrorists'

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Sweden should not expect Turkey to approve its NATO bid without returning "terrorists", and Swedish and Finnish delegations should not come to Turkey to convince it to back their membership in the alliance.

Earlier, Finland and Sweden formally applied to join the NATO alliance, a decision spurred by Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, with the accession process expected to take only a few weeks despite Turkey's objections.

Ankara says Sweden and Finland harbour people it says are linked to groups it deems terrorists, namely the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and followers of Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.

"We have such a sensitivity as protecting our borders from attacks by terrorists organizations," Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling AK Party in parliament.

Erdogan said NATO allies had never supported Turkey in its fight against Kurdish militant groups, including the Syrian Kurdish YPG, which Ankara also views as a terrorist group closely tied to the PKK.

"NATO expansion is only meaningful for us in proportion to the respect that will be shown to our sensitivities," he said.

Turkish state broadcaster TRT Haber said on Monday that Sweden and Finland had not granted approval for the repatriation of 33 people that Turkey requested.

"So you won't give us back terrorists but you ask us for NATO membership? NATO is an entity for security, an organization for security. Therefore, we cannot say 'yes' to this security organization being deprived of security," Erdogan said.

Erdogan also accused NATO allies of supporting terrorists, citing their arms deliveries for the YPG, a main source of disagreement between Turkey and the US, as well as other Western countries.

In 2019, Ankara received little international backing for its plans to build a safe zone in northern Syria, including settling 1 million Syrians in part of northeast Syria that Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies seized from the YPG.

Finland's President said he was 'confident' and 'optimistic' that Turkey's objections to his country's NATO membership bid could be resolved. https://t.co/SmMmaXmnAA

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Erdogan called on NATO members to support what he called Turkey's "legitimate" and "moral" operations in Syria, including the safe zone, or "at least do not try to trip us up".

Erdogan has also said Turkey would oppose the NATO bids from those who imposed sanctions on Ankara. Sweden and Finland had banned arms exports to Turkey after its Syria incursion against the YPG in 2019.

NATO and the United States have said they were confident Turkey would not hold up the two Nordic countries' membership.

Erdogan's spokesman said on Saturday that Turkey has not shut the door to Sweden and Finland joining NATO but wanted negotiations and a clampdown on what it sees as terrorist activities.

(Reuters)