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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Ryan Fahey

Turkey's President Erdogan to speak with Finland over NATO application row

Turkey's president will speak with Finland tomorrow while continuing to maintain his opposition to Finnish and Swedish NATO membership.

Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO on Wednesday after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had discussed the issue with the Dutch prime minister on Friday and would also speak to Britain on Saturday.

He did not specify the people he would speak to in Finland and Britain.

"Of course we will continue all these discussions for the sake of not interrupting diplomacy," Erdogan told reporters.

Ankara says Sweden and Finland harbour people linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and followers of Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan gives a speech in Ankara on Wednesday (Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock)

Western leaders have expressed confidence that Ankara's objections will not be a roadblock for the NATO accession process of the Nordic countries without spelling out how Turkey's position could be changed.

Erdogan on Friday criticised the West for not viewing the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia as a terrorist group while viewing the PKK as such. Turkey views both groups as identical.

"Currently there is a terrorist organisation in many European countries, especially in Germany, in the Netherlands, in Sweden, in Finland and in France," he said.

Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden at the White House yesterday (REX/Shutterstock)

Erdogan has previously said that Swedish and Finnish delegations should not bother coming to Ankara to convince it to approve their NATO bids and that "terrorists" would have to be returned to Turkey before approval is given.

Dr Samuel Ramani, an international relations expert at Oxford University and Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, has said that Russia is probably "pretty happy" with Turkey.

He told The Mirror that Russian media is trying to use this as proof that NATO does not really want Sweden and Finland.

Sweden and Finland's NATO accession would bring the alliance to Russia's doorstep (MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Dr Ramani said: "Russia is using this as a disinformation front at home to reinforce their narrative about NATO being an American hostage organisation."

Russia may be emboldened by Erdogan's move and Dr Ramani says Putin might order more troops on the Finnish border.

However, he added: "They have a manpower shortage right now. But Russian military strategy has been so unpredictable and sometimes baffling in terms of its rationality that it is possible."

A British Ministry of Defence update said Russian forces' capabilities are degrading.

It continued: "Many of these capabilities cannot be quickly replaced or reconstituted, and are likely to continue to hinder Russian operations in Ukraine."

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