President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterated his criticism of Sweden and Finland's support for terrorists as he stated that neither of the two countries has responded to Turkey's demands, adding that NATO is a security bloc, not an alliance to provide support to terrorist groups.
Speaking at the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting in Parliament on Wednesday, Erdoğan said countries like Sweden and Finland try to manipulate perceptions by changing the spelling of the PKK and rebranding the terrorists as the PYD/YPG, underlining that these countries are only fooling themselves.
He also criticized Sweden for airing an interview with Salih Muslim, the leader of a Syrian offshoot of the PKK, on the day Swedish and Finnish delegations came to Ankara to discuss their NATO membership.
"How can Turkey approve of Swedish, and Finnish NATO bids, given that terror affiliates freely roam, hold rallies there?" the president said, adding that both countries have yet to provide a concrete response to Turkey's expectations.
Turkey echoed concerns over Swedish and Finnish countries' support for terrorist groups during the meeting between Turkish officials last week.
Following a closed-door consultative meeting last week that lasted nearly five hours, Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın told a news conference that Turkey conveyed its expectations on this matter to the delegations from Sweden and Finland while noting that the PKK, the YPG and the PYD are all the same terrorist group.
Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO – a decision spurred by Russia's war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24.
But Turkey, a longstanding member of the alliance, has voiced objections to their membership bids, criticizing the Baltic states for tolerating and even supporting terrorist groups.
Turkish security forces discovered Swedish anti-tank weapons while carrying out a raid on a cave used by the PKK terrorists in northern Iraq within the scope of Operation Claw-Lock, a report said recently, as Swedish officials denied providing assistance to the terrorists, which has become a stumbling block for the country's NATO membership.
They discovered AT-4 anti-tank weapons built by Sweden’s Saab Bofors Dynamics Ammunition during the raids, TRT Haber reported.
Listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – of which Sweden and Finland are members – the PKK has waged an insurgency against Turkey since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict.
Meanwhile, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Wednesday the Nordic country would continue its dialogue with Turkey over Ankara's objections concerning its application to join the NATO military alliance.
"I'm looking forward to constructive meetings with Turkey in the near future," she told a news conference with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
"Our responses to demands and also questions from Turkey we will take directly with Turkey and also sort out any issues and misunderstandings that there might be."
Ties with Greece
Erdoğan also said Turkey has stopped bilateral talks with Greek officials due to their insincerity and hostility, as he urged the Greek leadership to be honest.
Ankara resumed negotiations with Athens last year following a five-year break to address differences over a range of issues such as mineral exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean and rival claims in the Aegean Sea. The talks have made little progress and the countries have frequently traded barbs.
He noted that Turkey has canceled the High-Level Strategic Council meetings with Greece and will not hold bilateral talks until Athens bounces back from its mistakes.
"You keep putting on shows for us with your planes," Erdoğan said, referring to a dispute about airspace over islands in the Aegean Sea. " What are you doing? Pull yourself together. Don’t you learn any lessons from history? Don’t try to dance with Turkey. You'll get tired and stuck on the road. We are no longer holding bilateral talks with them. This Greece will not see reason."
Last week, President Erdoğan said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis "no longer exists" for him after the latter’s remarks and criticism of Turkey during his recent trip to the United States. Erdoğan said Mitsotakis spoke against Turkey and urged the U.S. Congress not to allow F-16 fighter jets to be sold to Ankara.
Turkey and Greece, both NATO allies, have long been at odds over a host of issues such as maritime boundaries, the extent of their continental shelves, airspace, migrants and ethnically split Cyprus.
On Tuesday, Mitsotakis told reporters after a European Union summit that he had briefed his EU counterparts over Turkey's "aggressiveness" and "provocations which cannot be tolerated by Greece or the European Union".
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday Greece was violating international agreements that determine the demilitarised status of islands in the Aegean, warning that if Athens did not change course Ankara would launch challenges over the islands' status.