Türkiye expects Sweden to fulfill its pledges under Madrid memorandum for NATO bid

By Muhammed Enes Calli

ISTANBUL (AA) - Türkiye expects Sweden to fulfill its promises made under last year’s Madrid memorandum for its NATO bid, Türkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, citing a pact signed with Türkiye, Norway, and Sweden at a NATO summit.

Speaking at a military graduation ceremony in Istanbul, Erdogan criticized Sweden for embracing terrorists despite its pledges, saying: “How can a state that does not distance itself from terrorist organizations contribute to NATO?”

"How can Turkey trust a country where terrorists roam its streets?" Erdogan asked.

“Very few NATO allies have made the contributions to the NATO alliance that Türkiye has in the last last 71 years," he added, referring to Ankara’s longstanding membership in the alliance, since 1952. Türkiye also boasts NATO’s second-largest army.

Turkish officials have complained of Sweden allowing supporters of terrorists as among its reservations about allowing the country into the alliance.

Erdogan’s remarks come on the eve of a three-day NATO summit in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, which opens on Sunday, with some members of the alliance openly pushing for Sweden to join the alliance’s ranks.

Turkish leaders, however, have stressed that the security concerns about Sweden are not to be taken lightly, and that its membership could go forward when those concerns are satisfied, not before.

Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership soon after Russia launched its war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Although Türkiye approved Finland's membership to NATO, it is waiting for Sweden to abide by the June 2022 trilateral memorandum to address Ankara's security concerns.

Last fall Sweden passed an anti-terror law hoping that Türkiye would approve Stockholm's bid to join NATO. The new law, effective as of this June, allows authorities to prosecute individuals who support terrorist groups.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that he will convene a meeting next week with Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

Sweden has been criticized by Ankara for housing members of various terrorist groups for decades, especially the PKK and, in recent years, the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup attempt in Türkiye.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the terrorist PKK’s Syrian branch.