Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Wednesday that Sweden should not expect Ankara to give the green light for Stockholm's request to join NATO at the summit scheduled for next month unless anti-Turkey protests in the Swedish capital are stopped. The Turkish president was quoted as saying to reporters on a plane returning from Azerbaijan on Tuesday that his country cannot respond positively to Sweden's request to join NATO while "terrorists" are demonstrating in Stockholm. He added that Turkey's position will be clarified again in talks with Swedish officials in Ankara today.
Erdogan made these statements while Turkish, Swedish, Finnish, and NATO officials were meeting for discussions aimed at overcoming Turkish objections that hinder Sweden's NATO membership bid. Swedish chief negotiator Oscar Stienström stated that the talks with Turkish officials were good and that discussions aimed at overcoming Turkey's objections will continue, although no new date has been set for them yet. He added, "My job is to convince Turkey that we have done enough. I believe we have… but Ankara is not ready to make a decision yet and believes it needs more answers to its questions."
The Turkish presidency stated in a release that the meeting discussed the level of progress that Sweden has made under a trilateral agreement signed in Madrid last year. The statement mentioned that the parties agreed to continue working on "potential concrete steps" for Sweden's NATO membership. Istanbul has justified its objection to Sweden's NATO membership by accusing Stockholm of harboring members of Kurdish militant groups that it considers terrorist.
