The presidential spokesman said Sweden must fulfill the conditions before May, when elections in Turkey will be held.
Turkey’s presidential spokesman said Ankara is running out of time to ratify NATO membership bids from Sweden and Finland ahead of general elections scheduled for May.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Saturday that Turkey’s ratification of the countries’ candidacies depended on how quickly Stockholm fulfills “counter-terrorism” promises made as part of an agreement with Ankara. , warning that it could take months.
“Stockholm is fully committed to implementing the agreement that was signed last year in Madrid, but the country needs another six months to draft new laws that would enable the judiciary to implement the new definitions of terrorism,” Kalin told a news conference in Istanbul. .
Together with Finland, Sweden last year signed an agreement with Turkey aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to their NATO candidacies, which were made in May last year and require the approval of the 30 NATO member states. Both countries applied to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Turkey wants a clearer position
Ankara said Sweden needed to take a clearer stance against what it sees as “terrorists”, mainly Kurdish groups and the organization it accuses of attempting a coup in 2016.
Stockholm last week said Sweden was confident Turkey would approve its application to join the NATO military alliance, but could not meet all the conditions Ankara set for its support. .
Turkey’s parliament is expected to ratify Ankara’s decision on the two Nordic countries joining, with a vote on both expected at the same time.
Meanwhile, Turkish prosecutors have opened an investigation into an incident in Stockholm in which an effigy of President Erdogan was hanged, adding further diplomatic pressure to Sweden’s bid to win Turkey’s support.
The Swedish prime minister told TV4 on Friday that the act was “extremely serious” and that he considered it an act of sabotage against the NATO bid.
Kalin said the Swedish government must send a clear message to “terrorist organizations that Sweden is no longer a safe haven for them and that they will not be able to raise money, recruit members and engage in other activites”.
“We have a time problem if they want to join NATO before the NATO summit in June,” Kalin added, referring to Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections, scheduled for May.
“Given that the parliament will go into recess some time before the election, you are looking at a delay of 2 to 2.5 months to do all this,” he said.