"Anyone who questions NATO’s unity will be isolated within the community," Manfred Weber, chairman of the Group of the European People's Party (EPP Group) told Germany’s Funke Media Group on Sunday.
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EP warns Turkey of isolation within NATO if it blocks Finland’s, Sweden’s accession
"Anyone who questions NATO’s unity will be isolated within the community," Manfred Weber, chairman of the Group of the European People's Party (EPP Group) told Germany’s Funke Media Group on Sunday.
BERLIN, May 15. /TASS/. Manfred Weber, chairman of the Group of the European People's Party (EPP Group), the largest and oldest group in the European Parliament, has warned Turkey of possible isolation within NATO in case it blocks Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to the alliance.
"Anyone who questions NATO’s unity will be isolated within the community," he told Germany’s Funke Media Group on Sunday. "If the two countries want [to join NATO], Finland and Sweden are part of it, no doubts. There are no grounds to slow down or block it."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on May 13 he did not think Finland’s and Sweden’s possible accession to NATO was a positive thing as these countries, in his words, were a "guesthouse for terrorist organizations," in particular members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is outlawed in Turkey. On the following day, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused Finland and Sweden of open support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, saying that the majority of his fellow countrymen are against admitting these countries to NATO. Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on the same day that Ankara was not against admitting these two countries to NATO but wanted the alliance to reckon with its national security concerns.
Discussions on Finland’s and Sweden’s possible accession to NATO intensified in early April. The alliance’s key members have supported the idea. Most of Finland’s parliament members have already upheld the idea of joining the bloc. Sweden is also looking at such a possibility. On May 13, an interparty analysis of the situation in the sphere of the security policy will be ready in Sweden and the ruling Swedish Social Democratic Workers’ Party (SAP) will make a decision with regards to joining NATO on May 15.