“Nest of terrorists”: Erdogan says he is “determined” to block the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoganagain declared himself “determined” this Thursday to oppose the request for accession to the NATO from Finland Y Swedencalling the latter country a “nest of terrorists”.

“We are determined to maintain our position, we have informed our friends and we will say ‘no’ to Finland and Sweden, which want to join NATO, and we will persist in this policy”, declared the head of state before an assembly of young people, on the occasion of Youth Day.

LOOK: Why Turkey opposes Sweden and Finland joining NATO

Sweden and Finland “are the countries that harbor terrorists, the PKK and the YPG,” he stressed, referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its Iraqi Kurdish allies from the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Turkey, the United States and the European Union consider the PKK a terrorist organization.

LOOK: Which countries can join NATO and what is the accession process like?

Instead, the YPG fought against the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group together with the US military, among others.

“We are very concerned about those two countries, especially Sweden, which is a focus of terror, a nest of terrorists,” he insisted.

Erdogan recalled NATO’s unanimity rule: “If a country says no, [los otros] They can’t accept.”

These statements were recorded for a television program to be broadcast on Thursday night, but were previously shared on Erdogan’s Twitter account.

Likewise, the president denounced that “Germany, France and Greece” have “hosted members of the terrorist organization Fetö”, the movement led by the preacher Fethullah Gülen, who has lived in the United States since 1999 and who is accused of having plotted the attempt July 2016 coup in Turkey.

“The members of Fetö travel around Europe via Greece and [esos países] they ignore the list of terrorists that we give them, they continue to protect them,” he added.

Source: Elcomercio

Deshawn