Erdogan says anti-Turkish protests hinder Swedish NATO bid

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Sweden should not expect Turkish approval of its NATO accession bid prior to the alliance's leaders' summit next month in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. 

Erdogan was speaking to reporters on his return from a trip to Azerbaijan, as the latest round of talks in Ankara between Swedish, Turkish and NATO negotiators were taking place. 

Erdogan said that the Turkish delegation at the meeting "will give this message: 'This is our president's opinion, don't expect anything different at Vilnius.'" 

Erdogan points to protests, calls for police crackdown

Erdogan said that Sweden was still not doing enough to quell protests against his government or in support of Kurds or the PKK, and said that a change in laws was not satisfactory. 

"This is not only a matter of a law amendment or a constitutional change. What is the job of police there? They have legal and constitutional rights, they should exercise their rights. The police should prevent these [protests]." 

The two most recent such demonstrations took place late in May and early in June — with one of them coinciding with Erdogan meeting NATO's Stoltenberg on June 4. 

Erdogan said that he had told Stoltenberg then that Sweden should prevent such actions to secure Turkish approval. 

Stoltenberg, however, had appealed publicly during that meeting for Erdogan to "remember why these protests are taking place," suggesting that Turkey's own stance had contributed to them and that Erdogan was at risk of playing into the hands of people in Sweden either opposed to NATO accession or supporting the Kurdish indpendence movement, or both. 

"The organizers want to stop Sweden from joining NATO. They want to block Sweden's counterterrorism cooperation with Turkey, and they want to make NATO weaker. We should not allow them to succeed," Stoltenberg said alongside Erdogan earlier this month. 

NATO allies urging Turkey to act

NATO leaders are in the process of laying the groundwork for the July summit in the Baltics, and repeatedly say progress on Sweden's delayed membership bid is one objective for that summit. 

US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg all called during talks in the US on Tuesday for Turkey to approve Sweden's application. Similarly, Germany's Olaf Scholz, France's Emmanuel Macron and Poland's Andrzej Duda made such an appeal in Paris during a trilateral meeting on Monday. 

NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said that his chief of staff, who attended Wednesday's meeting, reported that it had taken place in a "constructive atmosphere." 

"Some progress has been made, and we will continue to work for the ratification as soon as possible," Stoltenberg said.

Asked whether he still hoped to resolve the issue in time for the July 11-12 summit in Vilnius, he said: "It is still possible. I cannot guarantee it, of course." 

As Turkey's recent presidential campaign started reaching its crescendo, Erdogan had made clear that he would not act prior to the vote, but western allies have sought to give the process fresh impetus since the longstanding leader narrowly secured re-election.

Stoltenberg was arguably the highest-profile western leader to attend Erdogan's lavish inauguration ceremony earlier this month; he held talks with the president the next day.

Turkey and Hungary yet to approve bid

Nordic countries Finland and Sweden elected fairly soon after Russia's invasion of Ukraine to abandon decades of military non-alignment, which endured throughout the Cold War, and to seek NATO membership.

NATO rules specify that all existing members' parliaments must ratify the accession bid of any new potential member. 

Turkey was also the last country to approve Finland's bid earlier this year, having delayed for months, for most of the time along with Hungary — arguably the two NATO members with the least antagonistic stance towards Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. 

Swedish negotiator: 'Turkey is not ready to make a decision yet'

Turkey accuses Sweden of harboring people it considers "terrorists," usually either Kurds with alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) or people accused of links to former Erdogan ally Fethüllah Gülen, who is now accused of masterminding a failed coup attempt in 2016.

Sweden argues that it has undertaken a series of steps seeking to satisfy these concerns, but Erdogan and his government contend these do not go far enough. 

Chief Swedish negotiator Oscar Stenstrom said the talks with Turkish officials had been good and that discussions aimed at overcoming Ankara's objections would continue, though no fresh date was set. 

"It's my job to persuade our counterpart that we have done enough. I think we have," Stenstrom said. "But Turkey is not ready to make a decision yet and thinks that they need to have more answers to the questions they have." 

Sweden introduced a new, tougher anti-terrorism law this month,  its Supreme Court extradited a Kurdish suspected PKK supporter to Turkey this week, and launched charges against an alleged PKK fundraiser last week. 

msh/jcg (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)