“Our opinion is not positive. The Scandinavian countries are like a greenhouse for terrorist organizations,” Erdogan told reporters after Friday’s prayers in Istanbul.
He noted that Turkey’s previous leadership had already “made a mistake” in agreeing to Greece’s accession to NATO as early as 1952. In 1952, the two countries joined the alliance, which was founded three years ago.
“We, like Turkey, do not want to make another mistake on the same issue,” Erdogan said. There has long been a dispute between Greece and Turkey over territorial issues in the Aegean Sea and over the right to explore for natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean.
Erdogan accused the Scandinavian countries of providing asylum to members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the far left of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party (DHKP-C), which were banned in Turkey.
For decades, Sweden and Finland have maintained military neutrality, but support for NATO membership has grown among both the public and politicians in both countries since Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine on 24 February.
Turkey has supplied unmanned aerial vehicles to Ukraine, but has not joined Western sanctions against Russia.
Ankara has good relations with both Ukraine and Russia, so it has taken on the role of mediator in peace talks and has offered to convene a meeting of the two countries’ leaders.
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