The Daily Telegraph

ISTANBUL -- Turkey's president highlighted the activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party as part of his country's objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO and said both nations doing so would carry security risks for Turkey. The group known as PKK has waged a 38-year insurgency against Turkey that has led to tens of thousands of deaths. It is designated a terrorist entity by the United States and the European Union, including Sweden and Finland. However, the West’s attitude to the PKK’s Syrian wing, the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, has caused acrimony between Ankara and other NATO members. The YPG forms the backbone of the forces involved in the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State group. “Turkey maintains that the admission of Sweden and Finland entails risks for its own security and the organization’s future,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote in an article published by The Economist late Monday. Referring to the central tenet of NATO’s mutual defense polic

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Historically skeptical about European Union efforts to deepen cooperation, Danish voters on Wednesday will choose whether to abandon the country's decision three decades ago to opt out of the bloc's common defense policy. The Danish referendum comes as the latest example of European countries seeking closer defense links with allies in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It follows Sweden and Finland's historic bids to join NATO — something to be taken up at a summit next month. Denmark joining the EU defense policy would have a relatively modest impact on Europe’s security architecture, particularly compared to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. But Christine Nissen, a researcher with the Danish Institute for International Studies, said both moves are “part of the same story,” and would strengthen military cooperation on a continent stunned by the war in Ukraine. She said the main effect of abandoning the opt-out decision would be that Danis