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Turkey criticized Sweden and Finland for supporting PKK Kurdish militant group. Finland and Sweden are in favor to join NATO. Referring to Sweden and Finland, Cavusoglu added that it is unacceptable and outrageous that friends of his country are supporting the terrorist organization.
The Foreign Ministers of the 30 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) met in Berlin on Saturday. At the NATO meeting, Turkey criticised Sweden and Finland for supporting PKK Kurdish militant group. Finland and Sweden are in favour to join NATO.
"The problem is that these two countries are openly supporting and engaging with PKK and YPG. These are terrorist organisations that have been attacking our troops every day," reported news agency Reuters quoting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying after he arrived in Berlin for the meeting.
Referring to Sweden and Finland, Cavusoglu added that it would be unacceptable and outrageous that friends of his country are supporting the terrorist organisation. The Turkish Foreign Minister said that these issues need to be talked about with NATO countries and also with Sweden and Finland.
Earlier on Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also opposed the Nordic States joining NATO. Erdogan accused Finland and Sweden of harbouring "terrorist organisations". In the past also Turkey accused Nordic countries, particularly Sweden of harbouring extremist Kurdish groups and supporters of Fethullah Gulen.
Meanwhile, Norway backed Finland and Sweden's plans to join NATO. "We don't know what Turkey really means but from (the) Norwegian perspective, we are 100% behind Finland and Sweden if they decide to apply for membership in NATO," reported the news agency quoting Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeld s saying.
Both Finland and Sweden are in favour of joining the US-led alliance after the Russian invasion. Notably, Finland shared an almost 1,300 km border with Russia. Last Mont, Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin had said that Europe's security landscape had changed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There is increasing fear among many Finns and Swedes and they feel that joining NATO would boost strengthen their security./agencies