MHP leader objects to Finland, Sweden plans to join NATO

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has objected to the plans of Sweden and Finland to join NATO, saying the move will further escalate the tension after the Ukrainian crisis.

“Before the Russia-Ukraine war ends, the participation of new members in NATO will drag the world into a new fire,” he said, addressing his party’s parliamentary group meeting on May 17.

Discussing the process of Sweden and Finland joining the alliance would not lead to an easing in the Ukrainian war but an increase, chronicity and even globalization, he stated, adding that provoking Russia through NATO while the war is going on in Ukraine will not serve world peace.

The MHP considers NATO’s strategy of expansion to the east as quite flawed in the current status quo and the content of political engagements, the politician said.

In the event of Finland and Sweden joining NATO, Russia’s military or political reactivity will be provoked, he said. “If these two northern European states are taken into NATO, no one should underestimate the possibility of the Ukrainian war spreading from Finland to Sweden.”

Secondly, Finland and especially Sweden “embraced the enemies of Turkey,” he said.

“Sweden is the shelter, supply and betrayal center of the PKK, FETÖ and DHKP-C,” Bahceli added.

Elaborating on the Supreme Court’s approval of the prison sentence for CHP Istanbul provincial chairperson Canan Kaftancıoğlu, the MHP leader said, “Finally, the Turkish judiciary has made its verdict, and the matter is closed.”

MHP’s direct interlocutor is not the provincial head, who has become a “marginalized and criminal case,” he said.

Kaftancıoğlu “insulted the public official because of his duty, publicly insulted the Republic of Turkey, calling it a serial killer, and committed a crime,” Bahçeli said.