Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Sweden must return asylum seekers whom his government want to prosecute for terrorist-related offences, to get Turkey´s approval for joining the NATO alliance.
Sweden applied for NATO membership in May this year and has already received approvals for the accession from the remaining 30 countries except for Hungry and Turkey, who have yet to give their approvals. Although the Hungarian government has said that their parliament aims to ratify this before the end of this year, Turkish President Erdogan wants Sweden to do more for his country’s approval.
“Sweden wants Nato membership for its own security, and we want a Sweden that will support eliminating our security concerns,” said Erdogan adding that, “It is our sincere wish that Sweden realises Nato membership, following full implementation of the memorandum.”
Erdogan demands the deportation of over a dozen people from Sweden, that Turkey accuses of terrorism. The terror accused according to him are said to have links with the Kurdish militants as well as a religious network involved in the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.
“My government was recently elected on a mandate to put law and order first,” Erdogan said adding that “I want to assure all Turks that Sweden will live up to its obligations made to our country in countering the terrorism threat before becoming a member of NATO.”
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