Turkey sends mixed signals about Sweden’s entry into NATO
Turkey has allowed Sweden to advance against NATO despite an escalating dispute over extradition and arms sales.
The Turkish ambassador to the alliance joined the other 29 member states when they signed the “Accession Protocol” to Sweden and Finland at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday (July 6).
It was a happy scene – NATO filmed diplomats chatting and laughing; NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warmly greeted Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde and Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, whom they both called by his first name in their public statements.
“With 32 nations around the table, we will be even stronger and our people will be even more secure as we face the worst security crisis in decades,” Stoltenberg said.
Tuesday’s signatures mean that Sweden and Finland can participate, but not vote, in almost all NATO meetings as official “invited”.
The Nordic Accession Agreements still need to be ratified by all 30 of NATO’s national parliaments before joining in full, which is protected by its mutual defense pact.
But while following Tuesday’s formalities at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Ankara has warned that it will block ratification unless Sweden complies with its demands to extradite Kurdish “terrorist” suspects.
The dispute escalated further the same day when the Swedish news agency TT said that a Swedish member of parliament of Kurdish origin, Amineh Kakabave, had brought an action against such a move to Sweden’s constitutional commission.
Kakabave has asked the court to investigate the legality of a Turkish-Swedish-Finnish memo on the Kurds and on arms exports to Turkey, which the three countries signed at last week’s NATO summit in Madrid, in a US-oiled deal of geopolitical significance.
“We did as we always do in NATO. We found a common ground,” Stoltenberg said on Tuesday, recalling the summit agreement.
Tuesday’s signing of the accession protocols was a “confirmation” of NATO’s unanimous support for Nordic expansion, Linde also said.
“We look forward to a rapid ratification process,” said Haavisto in Finland. He described “terrorism” as “a serious threat to all of us”, in a nod to Turkey’s concerns.
Finland has promised to join NATO hand in hand with Sweden, its neighbor and friend.
Turkey had initially talked about 33 Kurdish suspects that they wanted to get hold of from Sweden.
But last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan escalated that figure to 73.
“They must follow this document [the Nato summit memo]if they do not, we will not allow them to join NATO, “Erdoğan’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also said on Turkish television on Monday.
The memorandum does not state the names or numbers of suspects to be extradited, Sweden has designated.
At the same time as Turkey rattled off its veto rights, Turkey has shown its value to NATO by seizing a Russian-flagged ship suspected of smuggling stolen Ukrainian grain.
If that turns out to be the case, the grain would be confiscated and sold for the benefit of Ukraine, İlnur Çevik, Erdoğan’s senior assistant, told BBC radio on Tuesday.
“There is a great need for grain and it will help the world market, so Turkey is trying to do its part to alleviate this pain,” he said.
“Turkey has the second largest military force in NATO, so Turkey can more than handle this situation,” Çevik added when asked if NATO should send more warships to the region.
“At the moment, I do not think there is a need for NATO ships and to further antagonize the Russians,” Çevik said.