Erdoğan blocks NATO accession negotiations with Sweden and Finland
Turkey has blocked NATO’s initial decision to deal with requests from Finland and Sweden to join the military alliance, which casts doubt on hopes of a speedy accession of the two Nordic countries.
NATO ambassadors met on Wednesday with the aim of opening accession negotiations on the same day as Finland and Sweden submitted their applications, but Ankara’s opposition stopped each vote, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
The postponement raises doubts that NATO will be able to approve the first stage of Finland’s and Sweden’s applications within one or two weeks, as Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg indicated. It also paves the way for several days of intensive diplomacy between the United States, Turkey, Finland and Sweden on the issue.
All 30 existing members of NATO must ratify the applications of Finland and Sweden, but that process will only start when the Defense Alliance issues an accession protocol and formally invites the two countries to join.
NATO declined to comment, other than reiterating Stoltenberg’s comments that “the security interests of all allies must be taken into account. [and] we are determined to work through all issues and reach a quick conclusion ”.
Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attacked Western allies for not respecting Ankara’s “sensitivity” to terrorism and accused recent NATO candidates of refusing to extradite 30 people accused of terror-related charges in his country. .
“We asked for 30 terrorists. They said, ‘We will not give them up,'” he said in a speech to Parliament. “You will not hand over terrorists, but you want to join NATO. We can not say yes to a security organization that lacks security. “
Erdoğan, who has the power to veto their accession to NATO, said NATO members should “understand, respect and support” Turkey’s sensitivity about these groups, but added: “None of our allies have shown the respect we expected. for our sensitivity. ”
The significant decision by Helsinki and Stockholm to continue membership in the alliance comes after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, a non-NATO member who shares a border with Russia, aroused decades of security thinking in the two Nordic countries.
But Erdoğan’s opposition to their recognition cast a shadow over what NATO leaders were trying to cast as a historic moment for the alliance.
“This is a good day at a critical moment for our security,” Stoltenberg said on Wednesday when the Finnish and Swedish ambassadors submitted their requests at a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Stoltenberg promised that NATO was “determined to work through all issues and reach swift conclusions”, adding: “All allies agree on the importance of NATO enlargement. We all agree that we must stand together, and we all agree. that this is a historic moment that we must all seize. “
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson will visit US President Joe Biden on Thursday in an attempt to win his support for rapid ratification and an attempt to overcome the Turkish opposition. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York on Wednesday.
Niinistö said: “If we have a fast process there, it helps the whole process and the timetable.”
Turkey, which has been a member of NATO since 1952, is concerned about what is seen as Sweden’s failure to defeat members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militia that has been waging an armed struggle against the Turkish state since the 1980s. It has also accused Stockholm of harboring exile members of the Gulen movement, a secret Islamic sect blamed by Ankara for a violent coup attempt that shook Turkey in 2016.
On Wednesday, Turkey’s government-friendly newspaper Sabah posted a list of what it said were Ankara’s 10 demands from the Nordic countries. They included a demand to limit contacts with and financing of the PKK and its subsidiaries in Syria, as well as a strike against Stockholm-based media linked to Gulen.
Finland and Sweden have been keen to obtain security guarantees, with the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark and Iceland agreeing to come to their aid if they were attacked before joining NATO and were the subject of its collective defense pledge.
Niinistö said during a state visit to Sweden on Tuesday that the countries had been encouraged by Putin and his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s mild reaction to their NATO applications, where both Russian officials seemed to suggest that Moscow would tolerate Finland and Sweden joining the alliance.
“Maybe Russia does not want to tell its people that we have new problems,” Niinistö said.
Finnish and Swedish membership of the alliance would more than double NATO’s borders with Russia, but would make it easier for the country to defend the three Baltic states, its most vulnerable point.
The Baltic countries have welcomed membership requests, but stressed that NATO must agree to increase its own security at a summit in Madrid in June.