Letting autocrats win: Sweden’s prime minister apologizes for anti-Erdogan protests
from don’t feed the gollum dept
For a political leader who is so transparently self-serving and incredibly thin skinnedTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan certainly seems to have an ability to bend other parts of the world to his will.
To have criminalized virtually all criticism against him, President Erdogan has managed to silence a great deal of domestic dissent. But it’s apparently not enough to have a nation under one’s (presumably elfin) jackboot. No, Erdogan is one censorious cosmopolitan — a willing to exercise laws of other nations to intimidate and silence critics living outside Turkey’s unfriendly borders.
It’s terrible enough. But for some reason, foreign governments have proven willing to do Erdogan’s bidding and enforce local laws to punish people this tin pot doesn’t think should be allowed to insult him.
This silence rarely lasts forever. Local laws change so Erdogan cannot abuse them to censor people who are not Turkish citizens. Even the most diplomatic officials have a breaking point, and Erdogan’s constant nagging usually succeed in testing their limits, making any subsequent complaint less likely to be received no answer at allmuch less the one Erdogan desires.
After a period of relative silence, Erdogan is back to embarrass foreign officials on his behalf. He has Russia to thank for breaking it up. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted nations with longstanding positions of neutrality to join NATO—which seems a more appealing option when there’s an aggressive nation on its doorstep.
Finland and Sweden aspire to join NATO. And it has given Erdogan an opportunity to demand concessions from these would-be members because his nation has the ability to prevent the two applicants from being admitted.
Turkey is expected to try to negotiate a compromise agreement under which the two countries will crack down on the PKK and other groups in exchange for Turkish support for their accession to NATO. A key demand is expected to be that they stop all support for a Syrian Kurdish group, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG. The group is a Western ally in the fight against Islamic State in northern Syria, but Turkey sees it as an extension of the PKK.
I’m sure the list of Erdogan’s enemies looks like a set of encyclopedias by now. Given that he claims that all the journalists he has locked up for criticizing him are actually “terrorists”, it is extremely difficult to take his claims about these groups at face value.
Finland and Sweden could say a few non-committal things about doing their best and hope Erdogan finds something else to fuss about while rubber-stamping his NATO applications. But Erdogan wants concessions now, and he will be a pain about it while holding their unapproved NATO applications over his head. So, this is how it goes in Sweden, where a moody autocracy has succeeded get a top foreign politician to apologize for Swedish citizens exercising their right to protest.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned on Friday a protest by Kurds in central Stockholm, where a picture of the Turkish president was hung from a lamp post, as an “act of sabotage” against Sweden’s attempt to join NATO.
Well, it definitely wasn’t “sabotage”. It seems that the local population expressed their displeasure with the one person in NATO who seems willing to use his veto power to get the rest of the world to behave as he wants. Erdogan will certainly be no less inclined to exploit this small advantage now that his displeasure has resulted in the immediate capitulation of the Swedish prime minister.
And there is more. Prime Minister Kirstersson was not satisfied with misrepresenting the protesters’ actions as “sabotage”. That should have been more than enough to pay lip service to Erdogan’s bruised ego, but the prime minister insisted on continuing.
“People tried to show their views on Sweden’s NATO membership through a disgusting way of portraying President Erdogan in almost what looked like an execution.” Kristersson told reporters after a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “It’s bad in every way.”
Kristersson said he understood why Turkey is upset, saying “we would show the same reaction if this was directed at a Swedish leader.”
Yes maybe. But I doubt that Sweden would refuse to approve another country’s NATO application just because some foreign protestors engaged in some bad taste to prove a point.
And of course, Kristersson’s extensive apology has only emboldened Turkish government officials. They say even dumber things about the incident and turn even more into self-caricatures by claiming that the Erdogan photo was a “hate crime” and a “racist act.” Turkey’s foreign minister also claimed that the entire county was responsible for the act because it happened there.
“This action took place in the center of the city, right in front of the municipality, in front of everyone,” Cavusoglu said. “Sweden has a responsibility here.”
All of this is extremely stupid. Chances are Turkey is just looking for reasons to keep Finland and Sweden out of NATO because it still believes Russia will win the long game. All of this is performative and everyone knows it. But there is absolutely no reason why any foreign leader should agree to be a bit player in Erdogan’s foolish world theater sets. At best, all that needs to be said to Erdogan and his enablers is “I can see you’re upset. I suggest you get over it.” Being protested is part of the job of being a “world leader”. All a blanket apology does is encourage a terrible person to be even worse.
Saved in: criticism, Finland, freedom of speech, NATO, recep tayyip erdogan, Sweden, Turkey, Ulf Kristersson