Turkish Foreign Ministry: Ankara sees no prerequisites for approving NATO applications from Finland and Sweden

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that there was no “progress” on the way of Sweden and Finland to NATO.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated that the NATO requirements and agreements on the extradition of “Kurdish terrorists” to Turkey were not fulfilled. As writes Daily Sabah, Ankara does not see “concrete actions” needed to approve the applications of the two countries. He added that Helsinki and Stockholm had proposed Ankara to hold a meeting on this issue in August: “We hope that our first meeting will take place on August 26.”

Having reached certain agreements, on June 28 in Madrid, Turkey agreed to support accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. However, the next day the “price of the issue” became known: Ankara demanded in exchange for approving the application to extradite thirty-three “terrorists” – twelve people from Finland and twenty-one from Sweden.

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