Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has received NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in the capital Ankara for a closed-door meeting, the Turkish Presidency said Thursday, the latest visit by a flurry of high-ranking officials since the two earthquakes that toppled countless buildings and left more than 36,000 people dead in the country’s southeast on Feb. 6.

NATO members are there with Türkiye "whenever you need it," Stoltenberg assured as he spoke at a joint presser with Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu earlier in the day.

"This is the deadliest natural disaster on alliance territory since NATO was founded," Stoltenberg said, noting that he was visiting the Turkish capital to extend "sincerest" condolences to the Turkish people, the victims of the disaster and their families.

The alliance is building temporary shelters for the thousands displaced by the earthquake and plans to send "tens of thousands of tents" to the country in the coming days and weeks, according to Stoltenberg.

NATO, which already has a team working "shoulder-to-shoulder" with Turkish authorities on the ground, will use its "strategic airlift capabilities" to transport aid.

In Türkiye alone, more than 50,000 buildings were either destroyed or heavily damaged across 11 provinces by the earthquake and its aftershocks that killed at least 36,187 and injured over 108,000.

"We also held a moment of silence for the victims at our committee meeting this week. Whenever you need it, NATO stands with Türkiye," the secretary-general stressed.

The Tuesday following the tremors, the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center conveyed Türkiye’s requests to all NATO allies, enabling thousands of relief aid and search and rescue teams, including firefighters and medical experts, to be deployed to the disaster zone.

Listing "around-the-clock" efforts by military jets from the Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom and the United States to deliver international aid, help and rescue efforts, and the transfer of the injured out of the region, together with Albania, Canada and Germany’s "various financial means" to send aid, Stoltenberg hailed the donation campaigns organized by citizens in NATO member states to raise millions of euros for Türkiye as "a symbol of our solidarity."

"All of this will help save lives," he noted.

Support and rehabilitation for the region will be the focus of the international donor conference Sweden, the European Union's current president, is set to host in March, Stoltenberg added.

Expressing his gratitude to Çavuşoğlu for hosting him, Stoltenberg declared it was now "time to stand side by side with our allies and for our allies to strongly support Türkiye."

For his part, Çavuşoğlu thanked Stoltenberg for the solidarity and support, and informed that the NATO project that will provide shelter to nearly 3,000 people is set to serve for a period of six months initially, with an option to be extended if needed, in the Hatay province.

"More than 3,500 of the search and rescue personnel in the field have come from our allies. NATO authorities took action immediately after our request," he acknowledged.

Stoltenberg has asked allies to deploy planes to swiftly transport an aid package from NATO inventory and 20,000 tents from Pakistan, Çavuşoğlu explained.

In addition to regional matters, the war in Ukraine, and the extension of the grain deal, he and Stoltenberg discussed Sweden and Finland’s expectations about their NATO applications, the Turkish diplomat informed.

Sweden and Finland

While the NATO chief emphasized the "solidarity" demonstrated by Sweden and Finland at such a time, Çavuşoğlu said the latest "provocations" in Sweden "have not at all been helpful" for Türkiye.

Another reason for Stoltenberg’s trip to Ankara was to push for ratification of the Swedish and Finnish applications, which have stalled due to Türkiye’s objections over the widespread terrorist presence tolerated in Sweden.

Since the two countries shed their neutrality following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to join the alliance, their leaders and other NATO states have been pleading with Ankara to sign off on their bids.

A trilateral pact inked on the margins of a NATO summit in Madrid in June 2022 bound Sweden and Finland to a series of commitments aimed at assuaging Ankara’s security concerns regarding terrorist organizations like the PKK, its Syrian affiliate YPG and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), and Türkiye has warned the process would hit a dead end if the promises were not kept.

The strain only grew in recent weeks after a protest in Stockholm when a far-right extremist politician burned a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, in front of the Turkish Embassy under police protection, which only piled on demonstrations by PKK sympathizers targeting Erdoğan in prior weeks.

The NATO chief on Thursday said he believes it’s "high time Türkiye approves Sweden and Finland’s accession because they have taken significant steps since the memorandum."

Citing the lifting of the arms embargo and steps the Swedish government took on fighting terrorism, namely the anti-terror law that went into effect on Jan. 1, Stoltenberg argued the countries had "demonstrated their commitment."

He acknowledged Türkiye’s "highly legitimate" security concerns and assured, "No NATO member disregards them. War on terror is a key item on our agenda."

The fight against terrorism is set to be a top item at the next NATO summit in Vilnius, according to Stoltenberg who claimed Sweden and Finland’s accession would "increase the alliance’s capacity to fight international terrorism."

"What matters is not whether their applications are approved separately but that both become members," he said.

Çavuşoğlu, however, stressed that Türkiye’s stance on the issue "has always been clear" and that there are "no hidden agendas behind their objections."

"Türkiye’s concerns need to be addressed. Not just verbally but with action," he said, noting that Ankara welcomes Sweden’s efforts so far but "we have yet to see concrete action."

"It’s not realistic to say Stockholm has wholly fulfilled its commitments under the tripartite deal," Çavuşoğlu went on to say. "They took steps to toughen anti-terror laws and changed their constitution but they made these changes to curb terrorist propaganda, recruitments and funding but the PKK continues to operate there."

‘Shameful act’

Çavuşoğlu further argued it would be "wrong" to assess the burning of the Quran in terms of the two countries' NATO accession.

"We know the perpetrators of these acts are doing these to block Sweden’s membership," he conceded. "But this is a hate crime, a crime against humanity and it is racism. This is against international human rights, not just to me or to that person. It’s a crime the way anti-Semitism or anti-Christianity is. This needs to be stopped," he said.

Stoltenberg too addressed the Quran burning incident, expressing his sympathies for the backlash in Türkiye and the broader Muslim world.

"I think the burning of a holy book is a shameful act and that’s why I strongly condemned it," he noted. "I also believe it’s important and positive that Sweden has prevented other similar acts and its government, including Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, clearly denounced these acts."

Sweden’s blatantly taking a stance clarifies the position of the steps they have taken thus far and the policies of both countries are moves that understand and recognize Türkiye’s concerns, Stoltenberg said.

"It’s ultimately a decision of the Turkish government because at this point Türkiye will decide itself whether it will approve these applications," he concluded.

In the meantime, Ankara could consider Finland’s application separately and its response could be different from Sweden, Çavuşoğlu also said, referring to Erdoğan’s previous remarks about "having a positive attitude toward Finland" and leaving Sweden behind.