Erdogan Replaces Ambassadors to Sweden, Finland, Reports Say

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has replaced ambassadors to Sweden and Finland due to disagreements over the Nordic countries' desire to join NATO, the Turkish government's newspaper Resmi Gazete reported on Thursday.

New Erdogan's decree, published by the newspaper, appointed ambassadors to 25 countries and replaced ambassadors to Sweden and Finland.

Thus, Deniz Cakar, who had been the general manager of international promotion and culture, was appointed ambassador to Finland, and Can Tezel, who had been the general director of bilateral political affairs at the Turkish Foreign Ministry, was picked as ambassador to Sweden.

On May 18, Sweden and Finland submitted their NATO membership applications to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, abandoning decades of neutrality and citing a shift in the security situation in Europe caused by the Ukraine crisis. Turkey blocked the applications' review process due to the countries support of the Kurdistan movement, which Turkey regards as terrorist and deems as a serious threat to its national security.

Helsinki and Stockholm have initiated talks with Ankara on the issue, but they have not yielded fruit yet. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stressed the need for a written undertaking from Finland and Sweden that they will stop supporting terrorism.