CNN —NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that Turkey has agreed to back Sweden’s bid to join the military alliance. Erdoğan has stood in the path of Sweden joining NATO for more than a year over a multitude of concerns. Turkey had resisted Sweden’s bid to join NATO for a long time, giving multiple reasons – including accusations that Swedish officials have been complicit in Islamophobic demonstrations, such as the burning of the Quran. More importantly, Turkey claims that Sweden allows members of recognized Kurdish terror groups to operate, most notably the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). But Erdoğan had faced pressure to step out of the way of Sweden’s NATO bid from his European and American allies.

---

Persons: Jens Stoltenberg, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Erdoğan, Erdogan, ” Stoltenberg, Sweden’s, Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden, Biden “, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Kyriakos, ” Biden, It’s Organizations: CNN, NATO, European Union, Grand, Assembly, Kurdistan Workers ’ Party, Air Force, White, Biden Locations: Turkey, Vilnius, Lithuania, Sweden, Lithuanian, Greece, “ Turkey, Mitsotakis