The leaders of Finland and Sweden met with Erdogan of Turkey on 28 June to break the impasse.
Istanbul:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office said on Tuesday that Turkey “got what it needed” from Sweden and Finland before agreeing to back its campaign to join the NATO defense alliance.
“Turkey has made significant gains in the fight against terrorist organizations,” the Turkish statement said, adding that Turkey got what it wanted.
The statement said the two Nordic countries agreed to “fully cooperate with Turkey in the fight against the PKK” and other Kurdish terrorist groups.
They have also agreed to lift their restrictions on arms deliveries to Turkey, which were imposed in response to Ankara’s 2019 military incursion into Syria.
Erdogan’s office said the two countries would ban “fundraising and recruitment activities” for Kurdish terrorists and “stop terrorist propaganda against Turkey”.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been fighting a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, which has claimed thousands of lives.
The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara and most of its Western allies.
But the group’s Syrian arm, the YPG, has been a key player in the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria.
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