Turkey does not deviate from its blocking stance on the Scandinavian NATO candidates and threatens, if necessary, to veto the accession of Finland and Sweden. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urges greater understanding of his country’s security interests. The head of state demands that Sweden in particular extradite “terrorists” who can move freely in the Northern European country.
Erdogan justifies this with both countries’ alleged support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK and the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG. Turkey sees the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey, Europe and the US. Turkey takes action in northern Syria against the YPG – which is not listed as a terrorist organization in the US and Europe. In response to the Turkish invasion there in 2019, Sweden, Finland and the German government, among others, had partially halted arms exports to Turkey. The offensive was criticized by many as a violation of international law.
Rallies & Conferences in Stockholm
For years, the government in Ankara has regularly demanded that Finland and Sweden extradite PKK activists and other Kurdish organizations or restrict their activities. But just as often this requirement is ignored. If extradition procedures were then started, they would be very slow, according to the Turkish media. Conferences of the so-called Syrian Democratic Council – an umbrella organization of numerous ethnic groups and political parties in the autonomous region of Rojava in the civil war country, which has been trying to decentralize it into northern and eastern Syria since 2015 – in the Swedish capital of Stockholm and demonstrations for PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan have added fuel to the fires in the past. There are also numerous supporters of the Gülen movement in Sweden. The movement of Islamist preacher Fethullah Gülen is also blamed for Turkey’s attempted coup in 2016.
“Ankara lacks solidarity between NATO partners when it comes to the PKK and the YPG, which it sees as an existential threat,” said Mustafa Aydın, a professor of international relations at Kadir Has University. “You have to remember that the Kurdish issue, the fear of the PKK, is real in Turkey,” Paul Levin, head of the Institute of Turkish Studies at Stockholm University, told Swedish news agency TT. “This is a deep-seated anger shared by many outside Erdogan’s AKP party and those close to him.” From a Turkish point of view, it is difficult to understand that PKK flags are allowed to be waved in Swedish squares.
NATO promises swift admission
NATO has given Finland and Sweden the prospect of accelerated admission. A unanimous vote by the alliance and ratification of the alliance extension by the parliaments of the 30 existing member states is required for Finland and Sweden to join. In Brussels, it is suspected that Turkey mainly wants to put pressure on, among others, US President Joe Biden to get a fast delivery of F-16 fighter jets. If Erdogan’s concerns can be quickly allayed through concessions, NATO countries could extend the formal invitation to Sweden and Finland to the summit of heads of state and government on June 29-30 in Madrid.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, referring to Turkey, said the security interests of all member states must be taken into account. As the Swedish news agency TT reported, citing NATO sources, a meeting of the 30 NATO ambassadors on the two applications was set to take place on Wednesday. Most likely it will be decided to start the admission procedure.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
