Erdogan insists on his veto of Sweden in NATO and hopes that it will comply with the commitments made in Madrid

July 7 () –

The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has insisted this Friday that he will maintain his veto on Sweden’s candidacy for NATO, understanding that it continues to harbor those responsible for groups designated by Ankara as terrorist organizations.

“How is it possible that a state that does not distance itself from terrorist organizations can contribute anything to NATO? How can Turkey trust a country where terrorists roam its streets?” Erdogan said during a military graduation ceremony. In Estambul.

Erdogan, as on so many other occasions, was referring to members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that has been fighting for years for its autonomy in southeastern Turkey.

The Turkish president has insisted during the event that Sweden must comply with each and every one of the points of the June 2022 trilateral memorandum signed at the Madrid summit and defended that his country has always been receptive to the incorporation of new members , in the case of Finland, as long as they respond to Ankara’s requests.

Last month, a new law came into force in Sweden that empowers the country’s prosecutors to indict individuals who support terrorist organizations, but something insufficient for the president. “They have to fulfill all their promises”, he has wielded in comments collected by the newspaper ‘Hurriyet’.