After six weeks of veto threats, the Turkish government reached an agreement with Sweden and Finland on arms exports and the fight against terrorism. Ankara’s approval paves the way for two Scandinavian countries, Russia’s neighbors, to strengthen NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) after decades of military neutrality.
The statement came after a meeting at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Madrid on Tuesday (28th). Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the meeting. The negotiation lasted more than two hours and was mediated by the Atlantic alliance’s general secretary, Jens Stoltenberg.
Turkish requirements met
Since May, as soon as Sweden and Finland applied to NATO, the Turkish government had said it would vote “no” for these countries to join the military bloc. But now, in a statement from Ankara, it says “Turkey got what it wanted”. After the conflict with the USA in Syria, their demands, such as the lifting of the arms embargo imposed on Turkey in 2019, were accepted by Stockholm and Helsinki.
Sweden and Finland will also ban “fundraising and recruiting activities” for the Kurdish separatist group PKK. Also, they will no longer support the Syrian Kurdish wing People’s Protection Units operating on the Turkish border. Neither is Feto, a group affiliated with the Turkish cleric refugee Fetullah Gülen in the United States, who was appointed by Erdogan as the mastermind behind the 2016 military coup attempt in Turkey.
Turkey is in a strategic position
In addition to the approval of the entry of two new countries into NATO, Turkey sees its strategic position between West and East come to the fore. The country, which mediates the war between Russia and Ukraine, on the one hand sells unmanned aerial vehicles to Kiev, on the other hand, it prevents the sanctions against Moscow in the UN. Ankara is aware of the fragility of its location: it shares borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran in addition to Russia’s south, access to the Black Sea, long Mediterranean coast. These are features that add to Turkey’s influence in the Atlantic alliance, which is now effectively responding to Russia and ending an internal conflict.
Ankara has claimed that it cannot accept countries that support groups that oppose the security of one of its NATO members. This is because, starting in the 1980s, the Nordic countries received Kurdish political refugees. Erdogan was calling for the extradition of some Kurds to be prosecuted by Ankara. Therefore, the memorandum signed by Turkey, Sweden and Finland outlines the principles of extradition regarding terrorism, but does not list individual cases, i.e. specific nationals.
reconciliation with the USA
Erdogan’s most anticipated meeting will take place this Wednesday (29). Before leaving for Madrid, he met with US President Joe Biden, but a face-to-face meeting is scheduled in parallel with the summit.
Relations between Ankara and Washington have been strained since the US withdrew its troops from Syria three years ago. When the military alliance with the West was shaken, Turkey was excluded from the American F-35 warplanes program just as the Turkish army decided to buy Russian weapons. Now the Ankara government is waiting for congressional approval to purchase F-16 attack jets from Washington.
Due to Turkey’s objections to the acceptance of Sweden and Finland, the forecast was that Washington would ban the project, but now the expectation is for progress. The Biden government is considering the possibility of supplying Turkish-designed model but older generation jets. According to Erdogan, who positioned himself as an important global strategist here a year before the presidential elections, this will be the main topic of the meeting with the Democratic leader.
source: Noticias
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