Turkish Security Council Urges NATO Candidates to Respect Law, Spirit of Alliance

ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th January, 2023) The Turkish Security Council said on Wednesday that Ankara supported NATO's open door policy, but called on potential candidates to act in accordance with the rights and spirit of the alliance.

The Security Council, chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, discussed Sweden's NATO membership and the normalization of relations with Syria for 3 hours and 40 minutes on Wednesday.

"It was underlined that Turkey supports NATO's open door policy, and countries aspiring to join the alliance should act in accordance with the law and spirit of the alliance," the Security Council said in a statement.

The council stressed that it was important for the candidates to fulfill their obligations under the memorandum of understanding on combating terrorist organizations, in particular, Kurdish military groups and the Gulen movement, and demonstrated concrete steps in that direction.

On Monday, Erdogan said that Sweden should not expect Turkish support for its bid to join NATO, since the EU country's far-right activists burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm after receiving permission from the authorities.

Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership on May 18, 2022. Turkey initially blocked the process for considering these applications, but in late June, Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed a security memorandum that was supposed to take into account Ankara's concerns, including the extradition of Kurdish activists. To date, Sweden and Finland's applications have not been ratified by two countries out of 30 � Hungary and Turkey.