Delegations of Ankara, Helsinki and Stockholm met Thursday for the fifth meeting of the mechanism established after the Madrid summit to discuss the NATO membership bid of Sweden.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, National Intelligence Organization (MIT) head Ibrahim Kalın, presidential advisor Akif Çağatay Kılıç and Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akçapar are part of the Turkish delegation, while NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is leading the meeting.
A Quran-burning protest outside a mosque in Stockholm has fueled tensions. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized Sweden last week for allowing such acts. Police permitted the protest citing freedom of speech after a court overturned a ban on a similar burning of Islam's holy book.
Following the incident, Fidan this week said that it is not clear from a strategic and security perspective whether Sweden’s membership in NATO would be beneficial to the alliance or be a burden.
In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership in May 2022. Finland has been a member of the alliance since April 2023.
Türkiye has delayed giving its final approval to Sweden’s membership in NATO, accusing the country of being too lenient toward anti-Islamic demonstrations as well as terrorist entities.
NATO wants to bring Sweden into the fold by the time NATO leaders meet in Lithuania on July 11-12, but Erdoğan said Stockholm still had obligations to fulfill. NATO requires the unanimous approval of all existing members to expand, and Türkiye and Hungary are the only countries that have not yet ratified Sweden’s bid.
A day earlier, Erdoğan, during a telephone call with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, reiterated that Sweden has taken steps in the right direction for its NATO bid with anti-terrorism legislation but continued protests there by PKK sympathizers undermined its moves.
Meanwhile, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Wednesday after meeting U.S. President Joe Biden that the two leaders agreed that the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius was a "natural time" to finalize the Nordic country's bid to join the alliance.
"We both realize that the NATO summit in Vilnius in a week is a very natural time to finish this. But we both also know that only Türkiye can make Turkish decisions," Kristersson told reporters at the Swedish Embassy in Washington.
On the other side, a Swedish court Thursday found a Turkish citizen guilty of "attempted terrorist financing" for the PKK terrorist organization, a first in the Scandinavian country seeking Ankara's approval to join NATO.
The Stockholm District Court sentenced Yahya Güngör to 4.5 years in prison for the crimes, after which he would be expelled from Sweden and banned from returning to the Scandinavian country.
It was the first time that a Swedish court sentenced someone for terrorist financing of the PKK, Judge Mans Wigen said.
"The attempted extortion took place within the framework of an extensive fundraising program conducted by the PKK in Europe, including through extortion," Wigen said.
According to the court, the investigation had found that the goal of the extortion attempt was for a plaintiff to "hand over money to the PKK".
He was arrested in January after making threats and firing a gun outside a restaurant in Stockholm.
“It goes without saying, but I still want to emphasize it. Sweden’s NATO application has had no impact on the district court’s decision,” Wigen told a press conference.
Wigen, who called the crime “serious,” said that "the PKK is, therefore, to be considered a terrorist organization according to Swedish law.”
Sweden tightened its anti-terrorism legislation recently, making it easier to prosecute financing activities for terrorist organizations.
