Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan stated in a video released on his Twitter account on Thursday that Turkey has informed allies that it will oppose Sweden and Finland’s participation in NATO.
Finland and Sweden formally sought to join the NATO-led alliance on Wednesday, motivated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The other members of the alliance were taken aback by Turkey’s reservations.
“We shall stick to our guns and stick to our principles. We have informed allies that we will oppose Finland and Sweden joining NATO “Erdogan said in a late-Wednesday interview with students.
Turkey’s president claimed that Sweden and Finland harbor, finance, and supply weapons to “terrorists,” repeating Ankara’s claim that the countries support terrorist groups such as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and the Syrian Kurdish YPG, which it also considers a terrorist group closely linked to the PKK.
“NATO is a security alliance,” Erdogan added, “and we cannot accept terrorists in it.”
