İYİ Party leader criticizes trilateral memorandum with Nordic countries

ANKARA

İYİ Party chair Meral Akşener on June 29 criticized the way the government handled the NATO bid of Finland and Sweden.

Referring to the trilateral memorandum signed in Madrid, Akşener said, “The signature of the government for Sweden and Finland, without any concrete development, is, unfortunately, a concession that is incompatible with the interests of our country.”

Speaking to her lawmakers at the parliament, Akşener reminded that the government has withdrawn its reservations about NATO membership for applications of Finland and Sweden.

“However, it seems that the agreement reached last night, unfortunately, is far from meeting our expectations on very basic issues,” she said.

The recognition of the PKK as a terrorist organization by Sweden and Finland is not a new situation, Akşener said. “The important thing was to see concrete actions that would put an end to the PKK’s presence in these two countries. Therefore, this signature of the government without any concrete development by Sweden and Finland is, unfortunately, a concession that is incompatible with the interests of our country.”

Because according to the text of the memorandum, the tripartite mechanism, which will be created to keep the promises made, will come into effect after Sweden and Finland become NATO members, Akşener noted.

The second issue is that the relationship that Türkiye has established between the PKK and the YPG/PYD has been carefully separated from each other in the memorandum of understanding, Akşener stated.

She stressed that Türkiye’s state policy is that the YPG, PYD and PKK are one and the same thing, however, while the fifth paragraph of the memorandum considers the PKK as a terrorist organization, the YPG and PYD are defined as threats to Türkiye’s national interest.

Moreover, while Sweden and Finland promise to monitor the financial aid to terrorist organizations and the participation of militants, paragraph five is also pointed out, PYD and YPG are excluded from this, she said.

“In other words, financial aid to the PYD/YPG is excluded from the scope of the agreement,” Akşener added.