Finland must publicly declare that it will lift the arms embargo on Turkey to get Ankara’s approval for NATO membership, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Mevlut Cavusoglu made the remarks ahead of a visit by Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen, who will discuss his nation’s bid to join the military alliance with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar on Thursday.
“The visit of the Finnish defense minister to Turkey is important because we have not yet heard a statement from Finland saying that they have lifted the arms embargo against us,” Cavusoglu told reporters. “We expect such a statement from there.”
TURKEY’S ERDOGAN SUGGESTS THAT SWEDEN AND FINLAND SHOULD JOIN NATO AT SEPARATE TIMES
Sweden and Finland abandoned their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied to become members of the alliance after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February amid concerns that Russia could attack them next.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, right, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left, attend a press conference in Istanbul, Turkey on November 3, 2022. Sweden and Finland has fulfilled its obligations to Turkey and should be allowed entry into the NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.
(Shadati/Xinhua via Getty Images)
TURKEY SUMMONS THE GREEK AMBASSADOR TO PROTEST THE DEPLOYMENT OF ARMORED VEHICLES ON THE DEMILITARIZED GREEK ISLANDS
But NATO member Turkey has been holding off on offers from Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance, accusing the two Nordic countries of ignoring threats to Turkey from Kurdish militants and other groups it considers terrorists and pressuring them to crack down on these groups. Ankara has also been pressing the two countries to lift a de facto ban on arms sales to Turkey.
Sweden announced in September that it was lifting an arms embargo it had imposed on Ankara in 2019 following Turkey’s military operation against Kurdish militia in Syria.
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Turkey, which has accused the Nordic countries of ignoring threats against it from Kurdish militants and other groups it views as terrorists, has not endorsed its membership. The parliaments of Turkey and Hungary have yet to ratify their requests. The other 28 NATO member states have already done so.
