Turkey OPPOSES Finland and Sweden’s bid to join NATO, says Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he is not in favour of Sweden and Finland joining NATO, threatening to derail their membership bids.

Erdogan said the countries are ‘guesthouses for terrorist organisations’ such as the Kurdish PKK and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a cleric accused of leading a coup against him in 2016, and added: ‘We cannot be positive towards this.’

But he did not declare outright opposition, leaving the door open to a deal. Sweden and Finland’s foreign ministers say they expect to speak with their Turkish counterpart on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Berlin tomorrow.

Ann Linde, Sweden’s top diplomat,…