NATO member Turkey opposes Sweden-Finland military alliance | The world

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country, which has been a NATO member since the 1950s, does not support the annexation of Finland and Sweden.Nominations to join the coalition are expected to be submitted early next week.

To try to end the stalemate, The Foreign Ministers of Sweden, Finland and Turkey will meet in Berlin on Saturday (14).In Germany, they will negotiate a deal.

Despite being part of NATO, Turkey maintains strong ties with Russia, one of its key trading partners. The Kremlin has already promised unprecedented retaliation if the Scandinavian countries, which are geographically close to Russia, join a military alliance.

Officially, however, Erdogan argued that Finland and Sweden were “giving shelter” to Kurdish refugees who were part of a group considered terrorist by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, and Turkey.

“We have no positive opinion. The Scandinavian countries are like the guest house of terrorist organizations,” he declared.

Turkey’s reaction was the first conflicting voice within NATO over the possibility of Finland and Sweden joining the North Atlantic Alliance.

Since the beginning of the crisis and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Turkey has done everything it can to maintain good relations with the two countries on which its economy depends heavily.