Erdogan criticizes Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership. “We are currently monitoring developments regarding Sweden and Finland, but we do not have a positive opinion on them,” Erdogan said on Friday. Scandinavian countries are almost “hosts for terrorist organizations” like the banned Kurdish PKK.

Finland and neighboring Sweden are already close partners of NATO, but have not yet become official members. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked an intense NATO debate in both countries. According to NATO’s statutes, any decision on enlargement must be taken unanimously. Turkey has been a member of the alliance since 1952.

In the past, Erdogan has repeatedly accused Sweden and other European countries of not taking decisive action against the PKK or the Gülen movement. The Turkish leadership blames the group named after Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen for the 2016 coup attempt.