Erdogan again threatens to veto NATO membership for Sweden and Finland

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused Sweden of “not keeping its promises” and thus warned that Turkey could veto his and Finland’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“We see that Sweden in particular is not keeping its promises,” Erdogan said Monday in a press conference reported by the ‘Daily Sabah’ newspaper in reference to the Nordic countries’ commitment to pursue members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) there as refugees.

Erdogan has further assured that Turkey has repeatedly stated its position on this issue. “Our position as Turkey is clear. The rest is up to them,” he has indicated.

In particular, the Turkish leader has assured that Sweden had pledged to deport 70 “terrorists” to Turkey, which is not included in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Turkey, Sweden and Finland during the NATO summit held in Madrid at the end of June.

Sweden has already warned that it will not deport any person with Swedish citizenship to Turkey because it considers that it does not have an assimilable legal system in terms of respect for human rights.