Azernews.Az

By Trend

Turkey cannot say "yes" to countries who want to join NATO but also support terrorism, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks released on Sunday, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

Speaking to reporters on his way back from Azerbaijan, Erdogan said that last week's talks on Sweden and Finland's NATO membership bids hosted by Turkey at the Presidential Complex in the capital Ankara "did not happen at the desired level."

Saying that Sweden and Finland have expectations from these talks, Erdogan said however that they have not taken the necessary steps on Turkey's demands and stressed that terrorists are even now still walking the streets of Stockholm while Sweden protects them "with their own police."

"They are not honest or sincere. We cannot repeat the mistakes made in the past on (admitting) countries that embrace and feed such terrorists into NATO, which is a security organization," he said.

"For as long as Tayyip Erdogan is the head of the Republic of Turkey, we definitely cannot say 'yes' to countries which support terrorism entering NATO," he underlined.

Erdogan also said Turkey wanted to see an end to the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine as soon as possible, but that the situation was becoming more negative each day.

Adding that he will soon have separate phone calls with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Erdogan said Turkey will continue to encourage the parties to maintain channels of dialogue and diplomacy to bring peace to Ukraine.

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