Sweden must do its part on terrorism for NATO bid: Turkish president

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - If Türkiye is expected to respond to Stockholm's NATO bid expectations, Stockholm must do its part on the terrorist organization ahead of the NATO summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

"The NATO Summit will be held in Vilnius. Hopefully, unless something extraordinary happens, I will attend.

"The expectations of Sweden do not mean that we will comply with these expectations. In order for us to comply with these expectations, first of all, Sweden must do its part," Erdogan on Tuesday told reporters.

His remarks came on the presidential plane returning from his first foreign tour after reelection to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Azerbaijan, respectively.

Erdogan reminded the reporters that he had a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Istanbul in early June.

"What we told him was this: If you expect us to respond to Sweden's expectations, first of all, Sweden must erase what this terrorist organization has done. While we were expressing these to Stoltenberg, at that time, unfortunately, terrorists were demonstrating in the streets again in Sweden," the president said.

On the way to NATO membership, Erdogan called on Stockholm to step up the police force to prevent PKK terrorists from operating in Sweden.

"What do the police forces do? The job of the police force is to stop them. ...There are already rights given to the police force in laws and constitutions. Use these rights. You will not use these rights, then you will tell us: 'Come and take Sweden into NATO.'

"Where is NATO's counter-terrorism leg? NATO has to deal with this once. After having not dealt with this, we cannot treat them (Sweden) as the blue-eyed boy in Vilnius," Erdogan said.

He added that Akif Cagatay Kilic, his chief adviser, will on Wednesday chair a meeting, where he will give the message: "This is the opinion of our president, definitely do not expect anything different in Vilnius."

The fourth meeting on a permanent joint mechanism between Türkiye, Finland, Sweden, and NATO started in the Turkish capital Ankara on Wednesday.

The meeting comes before the NATO leaders convene in a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11-12.

Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership soon after Russia launched a war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Although Türkiye approved Finland's membership to NATO, it is waiting for Sweden to abide by a trilateral memorandum signed last June in Madrid to address Ankara's security concerns on terrorism.

Sweden passed an anti-terror law in November, hoping that Ankara would approve Stockholm's bid to join NATO. The new law, effective as of June 1, allows authorities to prosecute individuals who support terror groups.

Several foreign ministers hope that Türkiye would approve Sweden's bid ahead of the NATO summit next month.