Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is using Sweden's bid to join NATO as an opportunity to blackmail the EU in the hope of advancing his own country's membership quest to become a member of the economic bloc.
On Monday, Erdoğan spoke at the airport before departing for the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
"First, let's pave the way for Turkey in the European Union, and then we will pave the way for Sweden just as we did for Finland," the president said.
Turkey has the longest history with the union and the longest negotiation process. The country signed an association agreement with the EU's predecessor in 1964, the European Economic Community (EEC), which is usually regarded as a first step to eventually becoming a candidate.
Applying for official candidacy in 1987, Turkey had to wait until 1999 to be granted the status of a candidate country. For the start of the negotiations, however, Turkey had to wait for another six years, until 2005, a uniquely long process compared with other candidates, stemming mostly for its occupation of Cyprus.
"The progress of the process for Sweden's membership in NATO depends on fulfilling the specified issues in the trilateral memorandum."
In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership in May 2022. Finland has been a member of the alliance since April 2023.
Turkey has delayed giving its final approval to Sweden’s membership in NATO, accusing the country of being too lenient toward anti-Islamic demonstrations, as well as Kurdish groups, which Ankara considers as terrorist entities.
READ MORE: İzmir: The mayor says sorry after the uproar over the party inside an Orthodox church (VIDEO)
