“Terrorists’ guesthouse.” Turkish people do not want to see Swedes and Finns in NATO

“NATO does not close its door” to Turkey, Sweden and Finland, highlighted İbrahim Kalın, Advisor to the President of Turkey, in an interview with Reuters.

But we mainly bring this issue to the agenda as a matter of Turkey’s national security. <...> They should stop allowing PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) representatives <...> in these countries,” he said.

Kalin stated that Turkey wants to have an appropriate meeting with its Swedish counterparts.

“NATO membership is always a process. Let’s see how things go. But this is the first point we would like to draw the attention of all allies and the Swedish authorities,” he said.

According to Kalin, “one hundred percent” of the Turkish population “is not at all satisfied with the presence of PKK and FETO in Europe.” The presidential adviser asked other countries to consider this.

“If they have [Финляндии и Швеции] “If there is a public that is concerned about its own national security, there is a public that is equally concerned about our own security,” he said.

Separately, Kalın said Ankara’s stance is not linked to Russia’s harsh criticism of Finland and Sweden’s NATO plans.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also accused Finland and Sweden of giving “ugly” support to the PKK, which “attacks our soldiers every day” on 14 May.

“Turkey has supported NATO’s open door policy from the very beginning. Although some members of the alliance opposed the entry of some states in our region and the Western Balkans into NATO, we supported it. <...> [Но] The majority of the Turkish people oppose the entry of these countries that support the PKK and the SNS (People’s Self-Defense Forces in Syria, Turkey sees them as the Syrian branch of the PKK – socialbites.ca) and ask us to prevent it. process. But these issues should be discussed with our NATO allies and these countries,” he said.

“Terrorists’ guesthouse.” Why did Turkey oppose?

Turkey became the first NATO member to criticize Sweden and Finland’s accession to the alliance. location of Ankara voiced May 13 correspondents in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“We follow the developments regarding Sweden and Finland, but we do not have positive views. <...> We can’t give a positive opinion at the moment,” he said.

The Turkish leader announced that Greece had previously been mistakenly admitted to NATO (it joined the alliance in 1952). Now Turkey “does not want to make a mistake for the second time.”

In addition, the Scandinavian countries, unfortunately, are almost like guesthouses for terrorist organizations. There are PKK and DHKPC in Sweden <...>. And I will say more, they [члены этих движений] They even become members of parliament in some countries,” he said.

For this reason, Turkish authorities mentioned three movements in Scandinavia that they disliked. These are the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party Front (DHKPC) and FETO (Hizmet or Gulen Movement).

The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has been going on since 1984. Second, it wants the Kurds to gain autonomy in Turkey (the Kurds do not have their own national state). The PKK waged guerrilla warfare in parts of Turkish territory, carrying out terrorist attacks up to the killing of foreign tourists and school teachers. In some countries, including Turkey itself, the European Union, and the United States, the act is considered a terrorist act.

in the Swedish Parliament there are six deputies Kurdish origin. Some called The PKK and Turkey stop attacking each other and “return to the negotiating table”. Sweden also has one of the largest Kurdish communities.

Since its establishment in 1978, the ultra-left DHKPC has been organizing attacks on Turkish soil. It wants to replace the Turkish government with a socialist government, it opposes the United States. The EU and the US are considered terrorists in Turkey.

FETO Turkish authorities call the opposition movement Hizmet. In 2016, there was an attempted military coup in Turkey that resulted in mass casualties, authorities accused Hizmet leader Fethullah Gülen, who had previously immigrated to the United States, of organizing the coup. He denied the accusations, while his followers emphasized his cultural, educational and pacifist goals. Turkish authorities, however, accused Hizmet of involvement in the assassination of Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov. The organization is recognized as a terrorist organization in Turkey.

Reaction to Turkey’s position

Turkey was previously positive about Finland’s accession to NATO, noted May 13, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto at a press conference. “Let’s go step by step on this issue. We need to be patient,” he said.

Haavisto explained that the accession of new members must be ratified by 30 NATO countries at the same time, so it is not surprising that different countries want to highlight different issues and express their own political views during the discussion process.

He added that Finland and Turkey share the will to fight terrorism and this is definitely an important principle for NATO as well.

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde told reporters that although Turkish representatives have met with their Swedish counterparts several times in recent weeks, Turkey has not conveyed its negative stance through official channels.

“We have not received this signal officially. I will have the opportunity to talk to my colleague [из Турции] On Saturday,” said Linde on May 13. On Saturday, May 14, an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers began in Berlin.

“In a way, I’m not surprised. <...> had a slight feeling [Эрдогану] it needs to be shown that for some reason you really don’t take that into account [вступление скандинавов в НАТО] such a good idea,” said Finnish Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson.