The NATO membership issue of Sweden and Finland is about to turn into a farce. And this is because of Turkey’s games with the seriousness and credibility of the Western Alliance. Is it possible for a country to play with the security of the Western world and not care about the prospects of peace in Europe? Ankara openly blackmails almost all Western capitals and blatantly ignores Washington’s goals and aspirations.
And yet it is clear that Turkey’s game is tolerated by NATO and by the countries that form its backbone. Up to a point, of course. And those who will logically react first are the directly interested parties. Stockholm and Helsinki will not maintain a tolerant attitude towards Ankara for much longer. Obviously securing their membership in NATO ensures their own security. At the same time, however, it ensures peace in the northern hemisphere of Europe and creates confidence for any developments in the arctic circle and obliges everyone, including Russia, to face the developments with an eye of cooperation and reconciliation. Nor are they going to blow up their own political culture for Erdogan’s sake. It is not possible for Turkey, with its obsession with bargaining, to endanger the global balance of peace and cooperation as well as the political culture and behavior of the Scandinavian countries. (please also read the analysew entitled “US-Turkey: Are F-16Vs a Tool of Bribery, Blackmail Ransom, or a Gift to “Stay in the West?” & “Immediate ratification of Sweden-Finland’s NATO accession by simple majority“)
Turkey’s close relationship with Russia is beginning to cast serious shadows on its behavior towards Sweden and Finland as well. Political observers wonder to what extent Turkey’s obstacles to the entry of these two countries into NATO are actually those put forward by Ankara (tolerance of Kurds, asylum for those wanted in Turkey, etc.) or are related to pressure from Moscow. John Bolton, a well-known American politician, former presidential adviser on National Security and recently the US ambassador to the United Nations, a few days ago expressed questions about how ally Turkey can be with such attitudes in NATO. And he proposed to suspend its participation in the Alliance for a while so that Erdoğan would learn a lesson ahead of the elections! (please read the analysis titled “NATO, Finland and Sweden against Turkey“)
The Swedish Prime Minister also made it clear that he is not going to make another concession to Turkey. What Sweden could do, it did, he declared. We’re not going to do anything else. He meant by this that he is not going to violate decisions of the Supreme Court that rejected the extradition of a Turk, a “terrorist” according to Ankara, to Turkey. But also the removal of asylum from other Kurds and Turkish citizens as requested by the Turkish authorities. At the same time, both he and the NATO Secretary General emphasized that they expect the accession of the two Nordic countries by Hungary (this procedure) and Turkey to be ratified by the beginning of 2023. But the matter is not over yet. And the suspense peaks…
