Countries backing terror groups won’t be in NATO: Erdoğan

Turkey won't approve of the joining of the countries that are supporting terrorist organizations to NATO, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, informing that Ankara's first talks with the NATO-aspirant Swedish and Finnish delegations were unsatisfactory.

"The talks our delegation has conducted with the Swedish and Finnish delegations were unfortunately not at the level we were expecting. They have expectations [from Turkey] but as they don't take necessary steps, they are still allowing the terrorists to freely walk in the streets of Stockholm and provide security to them with their police," Erdoğan told the reporters on his return from Azerbaijan over the weekend.

Erdoğan referred to a meeting between Turkish, Swedish and Finnish diplomats last week over the two Nordic states' appeal to join the alliance. Turkey criticizes both countries over their links with the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the YPG.

"As long as Erdoğan rules Turkey, we won't say yes to the entry of countries that support terror in NATO."

On the same day the talks were held in Ankara, the state TV of Sweden interviewed a leading YPG member, Salih Muslim, the president said. "They are not honest or sincere. We cannot repeat the same mistake we did in the past towards these countries that shelter and feed these terrorists. What was that mistake? In the past, Greece had quit NATO and a Turkish government then allowed Greece to return," he said, referring to a decision taken by Turkey in 1980.

Greece now has nine military bases, and they are against Turkey and not against Russia as some Greek officials claim, Erdoğan stated, repeating his criticisms against Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for calling on the United States Congress not to approve the sale...