Turkey reminded Sweden and Finland of their promises

The prospect of approving the applications of Sweden and Finland to join NATO depends on their fulfillment of promises made to Ankara, Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said. He was quoted as saying by local TV channel Ulusal.

“They are now waiting for our parliament’s approval for their accession to NATO. We will not say anything about it. We tell them, ‘Do what you signed up for. It’s that simple,” the minister said, referring to the memorandum signed by the parties last year.

Akar recalled that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Finnish and Swedish counterparts signed the document back in the summer. The meeting was attended by the defense and foreign ministers, as well as NATO head Jens Stoltenberg.

“They said they would remove terrorists from Finland and Sweden,” Akar noted.

As Life previously wrote, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Sweden should no longer wait for support on the issue of NATO membership. The reason for such a decision was the action with the burning of the Koran, after which Ankara cancelled the visit of the Swedish defense minister. Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the burning of the holy book an ugly and provocative attack on Islam.