ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to meet Sunday with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg with the latter in Turkey to attend the former’s inauguration ceremony and push for Sweden’s accession into the alliance.
Stoltenberg arrived in Ankara on Saturday to attend Erdogan’s inauguration ceremony as he enters his third decade in power and urge the president to approve Stockholm’s bid to join NATO, with Turkey and Hungary the only two countries remaining to vote yes on Sweden’s membership.
“The reception at the Presidential Dolmabahce Office will take place at 14:00,” state media reported.
Sweden and Finland last year reversed their decades-long tradition of military non-alignment and applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Unanimous approval is required by alliance members and Turkey has used this as leverage to push the Nordic countries to counter Kurdish groups it considers “terrorists” in exchange for Ankara’s yes on the accession.
While Finland’s NATO membership was ratified in April, Ankara continues to block Stockholm from joining.
On Thursday, the NATO chief expressed optimism that Sweden will be given the green light to join the alliance.
“I’m confident of course that Sweden will become a member and we are working for that to happen as soon as possible,” he said.
Erdogan has repeatedly accused Sweden of harboring and supporting groups including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered terrorists by Ankara.
The PKK is a Kurdish group fighting for the increased political and cultural rights of Kurds in Turkey and has waged an armed insurgency against Ankara for decades. The Turkey-PKK conflict has killed tens of thousands and spans across the Kurdistan Region and Syria as well.
As part of its demands, Turkey is seeking the extradition of PKK members in Sweden, with Erdogan saying that there were as many as 130 there.
