Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seized the chance to “attack” NATO again, on the occasion of the bids by Finland and Sweden to join the military alliance, during his speech in the Turkish parliament, while he also made reference to Greece.
“NATO is making various efforts to strengthen its eastern borders. The constant movement of Alliance resources in the region after the start of the war in Ukraine, creates mixed feelings in us, as we have never encountered – as members of NATO – this image in the years we have been fighting terrorism. We expect our allies to understand, respect, and support our sensitivity. We have a sensitivity to protecting our borders from terrorism. None of our allies showed respect for this sensitivity, as we expected,” Erdogan said initially.
“Provided the refugees were not moving to the West, we did not see the allies sharing our problems. These are our allies in NATO. It is obvious that our allies do not share this sensitivity, although they show unlimited tolerance in some countries that act illegally within the framework of NATO and the EU. This does not mean that we will say no to any proposal that is submitted to us. Supporting the PKK / YPG terrorist organisation and asking us for support for their accession to NATO is at least inconsistent,” the Turkish president continued.
“We requested the extradition of 30 terrorists from Sweden, they said they would not hand them over to us. You will not give us the terrorists, but you will ask us to join NATO. We can not say “yes” and make this security organisation deprived of security. This mistake was made once with Greece. Greece and France had left NATO. Unfortunately, we said “yes” to their joining again later. A Muslim is not allowed to fall into the trap again. They wanted to come on Monday to talk. Do not waste your time, there is no reason. (The terrorists) are still walking around in Sweden. We do not want anyone’s lands. Our only goal is to sever from the root actions aimed at destabilising our country,” Erdogan added.
