Erdogan: the foreign ministers of Sweden and Finland should not come to Turkey, Ankara will still not support their accession to NATO

Turkey will not support Sweden and Finland joining NATO, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. His words are quoted by the Daily Sabah.

He criticized Sweden and Finland "for not having a clear position on terrorism".

Erdogan, according to the Daily Sabah, said that Sweden is "nurturing terrorist organizations." He noted that Turkey will not say to approve the applications of those countries that impose sanctions against it.

The Turkish President stressed that Sweden and Finland should not bother to travel to Ankara in order to convince the state to approve their application to join the alliance.

For a country to join NATO, all 30 members of the alliance must support the application.

Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the Turkish people are asking the country's leadership to block the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO. He explained that Finland and Sweden openly support the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which the government considers a terrorist organization, as well as its Syrian offshoot, the People's Self-Defense Forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, commenting on the plans of Sweden and Finland to join NATO, said that the country "has no problems with these states."

The day before, Sweden officially decided to apply for membership in NATO. The government of Finland also announced its entry into the organization. It plans to send the request as early as May 18th.