Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that he would not agree to Sweden and Finland’s membership in NATO if they imposed sanctions on Turkey.
He expects it will take months for the membership issue to be finalized, as the legislatures of all 30 current NATO members must approve new applicants.
Earlier on Monday, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said that Sweden should join NATO alongside neighboring Finland “to ensure the safety of the Swedish people,” announcing that her country had decided to submit a formal application to join the alliance, following a similar move to Finland.
“First of all, we will not say ‘yes’ to those who impose sanctions on Turkey’s accession to NATO, which is a security organization. Because NATO will not remain a security organization anymore, it becomes a place where representatives of terrorism are concentrated,” Erdogan said.
Speaking at a press conference in Ankara, Erdogan said Swedish and Finnish delegations should not bother coming to Turkey to try to persuade Turkey to accept the country’s membership in NATO.
Erdogan said the Turkish foreign minister had “some” meetings with his Swedish and Finnish counterparts, adding that neither country had a clear position against terrorist organizations.
“Even if they say ‘we are against them’, on the contrary they have statements saying that they do not hand over the terrorists who need to be extradited to Turkey,” he said.
He added that Sweden is a “nest” for terrorist organizations, saying that it “allows terrorists to speak in parliaments. They have special calls for terrorists. They even have pro-PKK deputies in their parliaments. How will we trust them?”
Erdogan reiterated the same position last week, saying at a press conference in Istanbul that he did not consider the possibility of Finland and Sweden joining NATO “positively”, accusing both countries of harboring Kurdish “terrorist organizations”.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which seeks to establish an independent state in Turkey, has been in armed conflict with Turkey for decades and has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.