Turkey has reiterated that it will still block Sweden and Finland’s NATO memberships if they don’t fulfill obligations agreed to in a ten-point memorandum signed between the three nations.
“They have to comply with this document, if they don’t then we won’t allow them to join NATO,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday. Ankara lifted its objection to Sweden and Finland’s NATO applications after signing the memorandum at the NATO summit in Madrid last week.
Under the deal, Sweden and Finland agreed to respond to Turkey’s extradition requests, lift export controls on Turkey, and not support Kurdish militant groups, including the PKK. Ankara plans to ask Sweden for the extradition of 73 people, mostly suspected PKK members, but it’s not clear at this point if Stockholm will cooperate.
On Tuesday, NATO ambassadors representing all 30 members, including Turkey, signed documents known as the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland, which sends their memberships to be approved by each nation’s legislature.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said last week that the Nordic nations’ NATO bids could be blocked by Turkey’s parliament if they don’t follow the memorandum. “This business will not work if we don’t pass this in our parliament,” he said.
Even if Turkey’s parliament approves Finland and Sweden joining NATO, the process of having all 30 NATO member legislatures sign off is expected to take a few months. If the Nordic nations do enter the alliance, it will more than double NATO territory bordering Russia as Finland shares an over 800-mile border with Russia.
Under intense diplomatic pressure, Sweden and Finland have been convinced that Putin wants to subjugate all of Europe. But what if, as he did in Georgia, he does exactly what he says he will do. What if he establishes defensible borders for Crimea and the Donbass and then leaves?
Would the NATO candidates objectively decide that they had been misled? Or have they already accepted another purpose for NATO: to seize Russia’s energy resources?
Though unlikely, it’s possible that Turkey can buy enough time for Putin to demonstrate his intentions before Finland and Sweden have made their irreversible decisions.
“Defensible borders” is a per-Hiroshima concept.
Well. he won’t “leave”; but he very well may stop there; I believe he will – but he will also dig in and establish strong defenses there, so as to ensure Ukraine is militarily neutered forever.
Looks like Amerikkka needs to up the ante.
All they can do is to put more sanctions on Turkiye… That’s it…!
America sanctions so much that in time maybe America will find itself with nothing too because of the sanctions.
Domino affect, I remember the late 1970s and early 80s when the US garment and auto manufacturing industries were going kaput. Many other businesses fell too because of it. Breakfast/lunch diners for example, a lot of them in Boston went out of business because of the garment industry collapse.
The U.S. is just expediting the demise of the U.S. dollar. It may not happen overnight, but in time many nations are going to move away from being blackmailed by the U.S. with their willy-nilly sanctions that they will place on a nation to force them to take the desired action that the U.S. demands.
Same thing happened in my hometown of Flint, Mardasee. When GM began closing its plants there, it took a multitude of businesses right down with them: party stores, bars, restaurants.
We can blame the execrable William Jefferson Clinton for signing NAFTA into law.
It’s not toilet to wall to write with your farth.
It’s PKK YPG these are terrorist and active last 40 years they murdered Turkish citizens,
Read non-american news papers so escape been ” Useful Idiots “
Good for Turkey. Hold their feet to the fire. If Biden can find $43 Billion for Ukraine, Turkey should be able to get at least $10 Billion for themselves as a sweetener.