Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson shake hands next to NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg. General, before the meeting in Vilnius. Photo: YVES HERMAN/REUTERS
The Turkish President demanded that his country be admitted to the European Union as a precondition for Sweden's accession to NATO.
Speech before leaving for At the NATO summit in Vilnius on Wednesday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said EU leaders should “open the way” for Turkey to join the bloc.
The unexpected demand was quickly dismissed by the EU representative. So far, Mr. Erdogan has almost given up hope of joining the bloc.
Mr. Erdogan said: “Here I am referring to these countries that have kept Turkey waiting at the door of the European Union for more than 50 years.
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“First come and open the way for Turkey to the European Union, and then we will open the way for Sweden, as we did for Finland.”
Erdogan said he would reiterate the demand on Tuesday at a NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital, where the alliance's leaders will discuss their latest response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as Ukraine's and Sweden's membership prospects.
An EU representative said membership in NATO and the EU, they are “separate processes” that cannot be linked together.
“The accession process for each candidate country is based on the merits of each country,” they say. said.
In response to Mr. Erdogan's comments, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he was in favor of Turkey's accession to the EU, but stressed that Sweden had already met NATO's requirements to join the alliance.
“It is still possible to accept a positive decision on Sweden in Vilnius,” he said.
Turkey seems to have abandoned its application for EU membership after years of paralysis on the issue and a deep reluctance in Brussels to agree to accession.
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The EU has long cited human rights concerns as an obstacle to Turkey's membership, while the prospect of giving Turks freedom of movement across the bloc is often exploited by right-wing populist movements across Europe, including Brexiters.
Sweden and Finland last year applied to join NATO in response to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Finland's bid was approved in April, but NATO members Turkey and Hungary have not yet supported Sweden's bid.
Turkey has often stated that Sweden has not given sufficient reassurance that the two countries agree on key security issues, such as the Turkish government's campaign against the PKK, which is banned as a terrorist group by Ankara, the EU and the United States of America. United States.
Analysts expressed some skepticism about Mr. Erdogan's demand.
“Erdogan made new demands and repeatedly moved the target throughout this process, but tried to pressure the EU on The NATO case is quite spectacular,” said Paul Levine, director of the Institute for Turkish Studies at Stockholm University.
“However, I think we should now interpret his remarks with caution. They could signal everything from setting the scene to save Sweden's reputation to trying to sabotage NATO enlargement by making impossible demands.
“One could say that if he does condition Sweden's accession to NATO by restarting Turkey's EU accession process, then Sweden is unlikely to become a NATO ally any time soon.”
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