The office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Ankara maintains its opposition to NATO expansion that includes Sweden and Finland and that position will be reiterated by the president at the upcoming summit of the Alliance in Spain at the end of the month.
Turkish media also quoted Erdogan as saying that Turkey will not compromise its stance towards countries that support terrorism and terrorist organizations and plans, according to the office, to hold two public events before the Madrid meeting to clarify the stance.
One of the events will take place on Friday in Brussels to discuss NATO’s future after the war in Ukraine while the other panel is scheduled on the sidelines of the summit in Spain. Both panels will serve as another opportunity for Ankara to use public diplomacy in raising awareness of the reasons behind its objections.
Meanwhile, Ankara is pursuing an intense public diplomacy effort at home and abroad to make its position better-known on the matter with the country’s Communications Directorate launching a campaign reflecting its stance against the support Sweden and Finland provide to terrorist organizations, urging the two countries to change course on their approach toward the issue of terrorism.
Although admitting that admitted that Turkey has legitimate concerns, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged that its resistance to the proposed enlargement came as a surprise.
Both Sweden and Finland expressed willingness to compromise with Turkey by toughening up their respective anti-terrorism laws and reviewing restrictions they imposed on arms exports to Turkey in response to Turkish attacks on Kurdish forces in Syria.
But they also refuse to meet Turkish demands on extradition requests for people Ankara accuses of having terrorist ties though Erdogan specifically mentioned them as a reason to stonewall the two nations’ NATO accession.
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