As the way things currently stand, Türkiye can’t accept Sweden’s NATO membership, according to the country’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
“Just like Hungary, Türkiye supports NATO’s expansion and has always sported the same attitude about the membership of candidate states,” Çavuşoğlu told a press conference in Budapest on Tuesday following a one-on-one meeting with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto.
“However,” he continued, “while Türkiye understands Sweden and Finland’s security concerns, it’s unacceptable that Türkiye’s security concerns are not met.”
Çavuşoğlu’s remarks followed two tumultuous weeks in Türkiye’s relations with Sweden and Finland as the countries seek NATO memberships that face increasingly more hurdles.
Stockholm has been courting Ankara to secure a green light for its application since last year when it, alongside Finland, threw away its military nonalignment in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war. However, NATO members Türkiye and Hungary, have been withholding their affirmatives, with Ankara making firm demands that its security concerns about the terrorists Sweden is harboring and tolerating be addressed.
Per a tripartite memorandum the sides inked in June last year, Stockholm has vowed to meet the said demands, including extraditing and increasing its crackdown on terrorist groups. For the previous month, however, public support in Sweden for the terrorist groups from their sympathizers has been raising the tensions between the two countries, which Ankara has repeatedly warned would jeopardize Stockholm’s NATO membership process.
Last week, Ankara suspended NATO talks with the two Nordic nations after an incident in Stockholm in which a far-right politician burned a copy of the Quran in front of its embassy, which drew global backlash.
Türkiye was already outraged by a Swedish prosecutor's decision not to press charges against PKK terrorist sympathizers that hung President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s effigy by its ankles outside Stockholm City Court.
Erdoğan said Sweden “shouldn’t expect any support from Türkiye,” considering the leeway Swedish authorities gave for such public displays, even indicating that his country could approve Finland’s application and leave Sweden “shocked."
Scrambling to stay in Ankara’s good graces, Helsinki reportedly made “immediate contact” with Erdoğan after his hint, with foreign ministers already convening for “preliminary discussions.”
While they have been intending to join NATO with Sweden, Ankara has been signaling they might not get so lucky.
The terrorist organization has a large presence in Sweden, Çavuşoğlu on Tuesday argued, referring to the PKK and its Syrian affiliate YPG who also find public support in broader Europe.
In a confession-like statement, Sweden's chief NATO negotiator on Sunday was quoted as saying, "Unlike Finland, we have a larger share of funding for the PKK from Sweden."
“Financing terrorism, recruiting people and propaganda continues (in the country),” Çavuşoğlu said.
“According to the trilateral memorandum, these countries promised to curb terrorist activities,” he recalled. “We can see that we don’t have a major problem with Finland compared to Sweden. There is a need for political willpower. We can see this willpower in the new Swedish government, yet there are no concrete steps yet,” he said.
Unless commitments are met, Türkiye can’t ratify a nation’s NATO membership, Çavuşoğlu declared.
“This is entirely a security concern and about the fight against terrorism,” he said.
He noted that NATO wants the membership process for Sweden and Finland to go hand in hand; however, "If a decision is reached about the process, Mr. President Erdoğan himself expressed that we would have a more positive outlook on Finland."
Çavuşoğlu contended that Finland refuses to allow an act like the burning of a holy book and considers it a hate crime "despite the same laws existing in both Finland and Sweden."
“The mentality of ‘freedom of expression’ will only drag us into chaos,” Çavuşoğlu stressed.
He said if Sweden were to fulfill its commitments in the future, Türkiye would consider its options, “but, as things stand, we can’t say yes.”
“We have established a monitoring mechanism. We continue this independently from these provocations,” he said.
For his part, Szijjarto echoed Çavuşoğlu in expressing Hungarian support for NATO enlargement. “We will assess Sweden and Finland’s NATO memberships at our parliament in February,” he said.
“I haven’t put any pressure on the Turkish side to act faster because that’s not my job. I leave this to Türkiye. I cannot provide the Turkish government lessons,” Szijjarto said.
The Hungarian diplomat also condemned Paludan’s book-burning, saying it was “absolutely unacceptable as a Christian that the holy book of another religion is torched.”
“We’re talking about a country that wants to join NATO,” Szijjarto pointed out. “Perhaps, they should behave a bit better. I say these only as an observer; they must show more respect. I repeat, it’s unacceptable to torch another religion’s book,” he stressed.
The ministers further discussed ways to reinforce their defense cooperation, Çavuşoğlu also revealed, noting it was “fairly normal” for two NATO allies to do so.
“Our contact with Hungary on every level continues increasingly,” he said. “We’re discussing all aspects of our ties. We would be honored to host their president in our country.”
The meetings were productive and genuine, according to Çavuşoğlu. “Our trade volume is rising, there is much potential. We have relayed to Hungary that energy is a priority and we weighed in on ways we could bolster this energy cooperation.”
Türkiye will provide every support to bring Azerbaijani gas to Hungary and some of our friends, Çavuşoğlu noted.
The two ministers also remarked on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the Turkish diplomat revealed. “We’ve been sincerely attempting to end the war as soon as possible. We know the war will end on the negotiation table someday and we will continue our confidence-building moves,” he said.
Pointing out to the Black Sea grain deal, the prisoner exchange, and the dialogue created to ensure a calamity didn’t break out in Zaporizhzhia, Çavuşoğlu said Türkiye’s facilitation of known and unknown many talks has “proven diplomacy works even during the war.”
