Sources told Reuters that Turkey’s talks this week with Sweden and Finland over their NATO bids did not make much progress towards lifting Ankara’s objection to the two Nordic nations joining the military alliance.
Delegations from Sweden and Norway headed home from Ankara with a list of Turkey’s concerns, and at this point, it’s not clear when the next round of talks will be. “It is not an easy process,” a Turkish official told Reuters. “They need to take concrete steps that will be difficult. Further negotiations will continue. But a date doesn’t seem very close.”
In order for the two Nordic nations to join NATO, they need the approval of all 30 of the alliance’s members. Turkey has objected to Sweden and Finland’s potential membership over claims that they support the PKK, a Kurdish militant group Ankara considers a terrorist organization. Ankara also wants the two countries to lift sanctions they imposed on Turkey in 2019.
US and NATO officials have tried to downplay Turkey’s opposition, but Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday that the concerns must be taken seriously. “An approach of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies’ would not be correct,” he said. “These countries need to take concrete steps.”
Helsinki and Stockholm joining NATO will significantly escalate tensions with Moscow in the region as Finland and Russia share an over 800-mile border. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that while he doesn’t view the two nations joining NATO as a threat, he would have to respond to the expansion of NATO military infrastructure.
Its payback time.
The putsch against Erdogan was staged/organized by at least the US and maybe NATO. Keep in mind, that the families of US citizens and servicemen were sent home 3 months before the coup and the coup originated in Incirlik, the Turkish air base which houses the USAF. The coup was a mirror image of what was done to Allende in Chile back in the 60’s.
The organizers have been conveniently hiding in non-NATO countries, just to make sure that NATO was not compromised. So who would say that the bastards who now want to become NATO members, are getting their dirty underwear exposed. Karma!
It’s time the US and Europe stop dismissing Turkish concerns and interests despite being the second largest member of NATO and acting in the usual patronizing attitude.
Turkey is doing Sweden and Finland a huge favor. Hopefully for them Turkey will remain adamant.
Finland and Sweden should say good bye to NATO membership as Turks are famous to be stubborn…!
Intention is not trying to do huge favor,if you read the news from right sources like “antiwar.com” then will see how Sweden and Finland look after PKK and YPG terrorists,and including these two in NATO is laughable and they wont be included in NATO,and if that’s mean kicking out Turkey from NATO is no issue for the Turks
I didn’t say it was their intention. I’m not naive enough to think any country does anything for anyone else without their own agenda being the main reason. And any country that avoids getting entangled with NATO is better off was my only point.
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In another article referred to here, by James Carden in Asia Times, who had been on a Presidential US-Russia Bilateral Relations Commission, who also has written for The Nation and The American Conservative, in other words, a bridge builder, comments that what upholds Turkey’s relationship with Sweden and Finland is it’s past support for ISIS in Syria and Iraq, they had a primary role in the civil conflict after the US invasion, and has driven the refugee crisis there, and into Europe. At the same time, despite this history, Turkey’s strategic place in the Black Sea area, and it’s history with Russia and Ukraine, especially on oil and grain trade through Damascus, makes it ideal in being a part of a negotiated peace, and in some ways, a reason for Sweden and Finland not to joint NATO.
In other articles by Carden, one sees, like many commentators here, how negotiated peace is possible in many conflict areas, when one truly studies both sides of an issue. One article he has points out how Putin is neither like Hitler nor Stalin, but more like Solzhenytzen, whom he visited on his 89th birthday, abhorrence of the soviet gulags and corrupt system, and appreciation of Russian history and culture