My little sister has been really struggling with a health condition lately and finally got to see a doctor. They charged her $40 for crying.
She has a rare disease so she’s been really struggling to find care. She got emotional because she feels frustrated and helpless. One tear in and they charged her $40 without addressing why she is crying, trying to help, doing any evaluation, any prescription, nothing.
They charged her more for crying than they did for a vision assessment test. They charged her more for crying than for a hemoglobin test. They charged her more for crying than for a health risk assessment. They charged her more for crying than for a capilary blood draw.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed Turkey’s opposition to NATO membership for Finland and Sweden, shooting down a proposal by the Nordic countries to send delegations to Ankara to address the matter.
“We will not say ‘yes’ to those [countries] who apply sanctions to Turkey to join security organisation NATO,” Erdogan said at a news conference on Monday, referring to Sweden’s 2019 decision to suspend arms sales to Turkey over its military operation in neighbouring Syria.
Turkey also accused the two bidding nations of harbouring “terror” groups, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), blacklisted by Ankara, the European Union and the United States.
“Neither of the countries have a clear stance against terror organisations,” Erdogan said. “How can we trust them?”
Justice ministry sources told the state news agency Anadolu on Monday that Sweden and Finland had failed to respond positively to Turkey’s 33 extradition requests over the past five years.
Ankara wanted individuals that are either accused of having links to the PKK and allied groups or of belonging to a movement blamed for the attempted overthrow of Erdogan in 2016, the agency reported.
Turkey has rebuked Stockholm especially for showing what it describes as leniency towards the PKK, which has waged an armed uprising against the Turkish state since 1984.
The Swedish foreign office said earlier on Monday that senior representatives of Sweden and Finland were planning to travel to Turkey for talks to address Ankara’s objections.
Erdogan reacted to the comments by saying: “Will they come to persuade us? Excuse us, but they shouldn’t bother”. He added that NATO would become “a place where representatives of terrorist organisations are concentrated” if the two countries join.
Ankara’s approval will be necessary for Finland and Sweden to be able to join NATO, as membership bids must be unanimously approved by the alliance’s 30 members.
Stefanie Babst, former NATO deputy assistant secretary-general for public diplomacy and an analyst at the European Leadership Network, told Al Jazeera that “Turkey will, in the end, align with the consensus and welcome Finland and Sweden as new members”.
“In the meantime, they will try to bargain in negotiations in order to get some returns,” she said.
Turkey may be aiming to obtain military equipment from Washington to upgrade its outdated F-16 fleet and ratchet up some Western support to relieve its troubled economy. On the home front, the analyst said the mention of the PKK was aimed at drawing the support of Erdogan’s nationalist voters.
Ankara’s latest rebuke came after Sweden’s government formally decided to apply for NATO membership. Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson made the announcement on Monday, a day after Finnish President Sauli Niinisto confirmed that Finland will also apply for membership.
“We are leaving one era behind us and entering a new one,” Andersson told a news conference, adding that the application could be handed in on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and would be synchronised with Finland.
Turkey surprised its NATO allies last week by saying it would not view their applications positively.
On the sidelines of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin on Sunday, Ankara adopted a more conciliatory tone and laid down its demands, saying it wanted the two countries to end support for groups such as the PKK and lift the ban on arms sales.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday stated that Sweden and Finland would be able to join NATO despite Turkey’s concerns. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also said he was confident “that we will be able to address the concerns that Turkey has expressed”.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is scheduled to meet with Blinken in Washington on Wednesday, where Ankara’s objections are expected to figure high on the agenda.
Russia suspends electricity supplies to Finland, a supplier said on Friday as tensions rise over Helsinki's NATO bid amid Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine.
'We are forced to suspend the electricity import starting from May 14,' said RAO Nordic, a subsidiary of Russian state energy holding Inter RAO.
'RAO Nordic is not able to make payments for the imported electricity from Russia.'
The firm is not directly faced with Western sanctions over the invasion into Ukraine, Montel News reports. However the outlet adds Inter Rao Lietuva - its 51% owned Lithuanian subsidiary - is.
MailOnline has reached out to RAO Nordic for more information.
It comes as Russia yesterday accused Finland of 'pushing above its weight' as the country signalled its intention to join NATO.
Putin's EU ambassador vowed to bolster defences on the Russia and Finland's shared 800-mile-long border if it decided to join the alliance.
Vladimir Chizhov said if Finland joined it would lead to 'certain military-technical measures, like improving or raising the degree of defence preparations along the Finnish border'.
A move would 'certainly necessitate rethinking of Russian defence posture' but not 'necessarily [involve] troops and tanks, but certain preparations like radars, perhaps', he told Sky News.
Yesterday a former British ambassador to Russia has said there may be 'much more Russian nuclear deployment in the Baltic' areas in response to Finland potentially becoming a NATO member in light of the war in Ukraine.
Sir Tony Brenton told BBC's Newsnight programme the Kremlin may think 'it expands their view of NATO as a threat to them'.
He said: 'They will be very conscious especially as this war winds its way to a conclusion that their conventional forces have not produced the results they hoped for.
'They will be increasingly inclined therefore to use their nuclear strength as a demonstration they need to be taken seriously.
'I think we need to resign ourselves to the likelihood of much more Russian nuclear deployment in the Baltic area as a response to Finland's accession to NATO, when it comes, and Sweden's very likely one as well.'