Turkey say NO to Finland and Sweden to join NATO
The entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO is increasingly imminent but today, on the day the Swedish request to join the Atlantic Alliance becomes official, Erdogan repeated that Turkey will say no.
Membership of NATO is subject to a unanimous vote in favor of the 30
organization's members.
Russia had hoped that the NATO front would not be so united in accepting the application for membership from Finland and Sweden. Moscow looked to Ankara and Ankara responded. Erdogan, who in the first weeks of the war had spent himself trying to find a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, closes the door in the face of the Finnish premier: Turkey is opposed to the entry into NATO of the two Scandinavian countries and could assert its right of veto.
Erdogan linked his objection to Finnish and Swedish support for the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which has been designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU. The PKK has conducted a decade-long insurrection in southeastern Turkey in support of the national, ethnic and cultural rights of the Kurds.
Erdogan said:
We are following the developments on Sweden and Finland, but we do not have a positive opinion, because they made a mistake in NATO regarding Greece. In addition, the Scandinavian countries host terrorist organizations. We will not step back on the accession to NATO of Sweden and Finland because they apply sanctions against Turkey. How can we trust them? Sweden in particular, is a breeding ground of terrorist organizations.
Sweden is home to an important Kurdish community and is home to the best Kurdish football team in Europe that empathizes with the PKK and Turkish Kurdish aspirations. In addition, six Swedish members of parliament are of Kurdish ethnicity.
Turkey's position in the Ukrainian conflict has always been a tightrope: to Kiev it sells its drones, but its economy depends heavily on friendly relations with Moscow. Some analysts suggest Turkey could use its objection to regain access to the US F-35 fighter program.
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