Turkey Agrees To Back Sweden, Finland’s Bid To Join NATO

Finland and Sweden leaders met Turkey’s Erdogan on June 28 to break the deadlock.

Istanbul:

Turkey “got what it wanted” from Sweden and Finland before agreeing to back their drives to join the NATO defence alliance, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office said on Tuesday.

“Turkey has made significant gains in the fight against terrorist organisations,” said the Turkish statement, adding: “Turkey got what it wanted.”

The two Nordic countries agreed to “cooperate fully with Turkey in its fight against the PKK” and other Kurdish militant groups, said the statement.

They have also agreed to lift their embargoes on weapons deliveries to Turkey, which were imposed in response to Ankara’s 2019 military incursion into Syria.

The two countries will ban “fundraising and recruitment activities” for the Kurdish militants, and “prevent terrorist propaganda against Turkey,” Erdogan’s office said.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been waging a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The PKK is designated as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and most of its Western allies.

But the group’s Syrian offshoot, the YPG, has been an important player in the US-led international alliance against the Islamic State group in Syria.

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