Kalin: We cannot ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO

Turkey is “not in a position” to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership as it is, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said today, following an incident last week that caused friction between Ankara and Stockholm.

“We are not able to send the law (for ratification) to the Parliament, we have a real problem in this matter,” Kalin stressed today, saying that there is a risk that the MPs will reject the law.

A video posted on Twitter by a Kurdish organization shows an effigy of Erdogan hanging by the feet from a rope in front of Stockholm’s city hall drew the ire of Turkey with the Swedish ambassador in Ankara being summoned by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

This incident came at a time when Turkey continues to block Sweden – as well as Finland – from joining NATO, accusing it of harboring on its soil members of the PKK and other allied organizations, which Ankara describes as terrorists.

“We have been involved in this process for six or seven months and it is not good for Sweden to appear in this light,” Kalin told foreign media reporters.

“We want to move forward, but if these kinds of incidents continue, it will slow down the process.”

For Kalin, Sweden needs to send “a clear message” about the attitude of PKK members on its soil.

“They must (…) for example guarantee that (PKK members) can no longer recruit or collect money” on Swedish soil.

He acknowledged, however, that the new Swedish government has taken several important steps, including the Swedish prime minister’s visit to Ankara shortly after taking office as well as “amending the Constitution, a positive step.”

However, we will need to wait “six months” until the new relevant laws are drawn up and ratified by Parliament, he noted.

In addition, Kalin confirmed that Turkey “is not asking Sweden or Finland for anything that is not in accordance with their legislation: we are very realistic.”

The Turkish government has specifically called for the deportation of many members of the PKK and the FETO movement, led by preacher Fethullah Gulen, which Ankara accuses of masterminding the 2016 coup attempt.

In this context, a PKK member was sent back from Stockholm in early December – and immediately imprisoned in Turkey.