Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated on Saturday that Ankara could block Sweden and Finland from joining NATO if the two countries don’t fulfill a deal they signed with Turkey on joining the alliance.
Sweden and Finland have signed their ascension protocols to join NATO, which sent their prospective memberships to each alliance member’s parliamentary bodies. So far, 28 out of 30 members ratified their memberships, with only Hungary and Turkey remaining.
“Until the promises made to our country are kept, we will maintain our principled position,” Erdogan told Turkey’s parliament. “We are closely following whether the promises made by Sweden and Finland are kept or not, and of course, the final decision will be up to our great parliament.”
Erdogan’s main gripe with Sweden and Finland is their alleged support for PKK, a Kurdish militant group that Turkey, the EU, and the US consider a terrorist organization. Under the deal Sweden and Finland signed with Turkey back in June, the Nordic nations agreed to cooperate on the extradition of suspected PKK members, but so far, little progress has been made in that area.
Another aspect of the agreement was for Sweden and Finland to lift an arms embargo they placed on Turkey in 2019 in response to Erdogan’s invasion of northeast Syria. On Friday, Sweden announced that it reversed a ban on exporting military goods to Turkey in a step toward fulfilling the agreement with Ankara.
Finland and Sweden are de facto NATO members for a long time. already. Both participated in joined naval exercises with NATO in the Baltic Sea, the same as the Ukrainians did in Ukraine. The pipelines were blown up in Swedish and Danish waters, and NATO ships were in the area for months, no Russian military ships were seen even close by, considering all the observation equipment they do have, they would know and say so. The NATO membership is practically a done deal. They need 32 nations to gang up on Russia? Why is NATO INVOLVED? Biden just did what Nuland recommended the EU to do before the regime change. The Biden people are evil devious madmen, they must go.
After the midterms, the GOP will control both houses. The GOP controls the Supreme Court and its band of Catholics. As the war continues into next year, I expect that the GOP will take state governments (governors). Come 2024…………..the White House. If Biden had used some of his mushy brain to consider negotiating with Russia back in December, 2021, again in April, 2022, use diplomacy, he would have been a hero, the man who save Ukraine and the EU. Now he is the 1/2 plate of sh*t, as described by Nina Turner. I love America! We elect such enlightened leaders!
Still looking pretty unlikely that the GOP will control the Senate after the midterms.
Could be either way, but it’s irrelevant. Senate committee investigations have more cachet than House committee investigations, true. But nothing goes through Congress unless the party controlling the House approves it.
Thomas, the minority party is in charge of the Senate and has been for many years. They now control the SC and the lower house is only part of congress. The GOP the minority controls all three branches of government.
The GOP is already in control, the system is anything but democratic, it is rigged to serve the minority which were the big landowners when they wrote the constitution which were replaced by corporations. The Democrats fouled up big time when the establishment picked Biden for president to serve the corporations and not the people. But both parties are in bed with big money. He could not even pick good people for his administration, and his dementia keeps getting worse.
Putin is the outstanding statesman and he will go down in the history books as great. He made Russia a great nation again. The people know it they approve of him.
Finland and Sweden assume that the US would come down on Russia with everything at our disposal once they are officially members of NATO. Ironically, they could learn a few things about that from the Kurds they are trying to protect from Turkey.
And Ukraine could teach them a lesson, the US had promised NATO would take care of them. Nord Stream should tell them something too. They are so stupid, they jumped on the train after it had left the station and fell flat on their faces.
Idea- USA out of Nato to make room for Sweden, Finland?
Works for me, except the neocons wouldn’t even have other nations to at least try to moderate their unhingedness.
Do it, buddy. DO IT. NATO’s gotten a little too big for its britches lately.
Yup, adding North Macedonia back in 2020 was TOO MUCH!