Turkey frustrates Nordic Nato ambitions
Hopes that Sweden and Finland could be quickly admitted into Nato were thrown into doubt when Nato member Turkey, which has a veto, said it would block their applications, say Richard Milne and Laura Pitel in the Financial Times. The security alliance had hoped to formally begin accession talks on Wednesday – its secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg predicted that the first stage of the application could be approved within weeks. Turkey’s opposition makes that unlikely.
The country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, objects to Sweden and Finland joining as both countries have given shelter to members of groups that Ankara considers “terrorist”, say Bruno Waterfield and Oliver Moody in The Times. These groups include the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Syrian Kurdish YPG, as well as followers of Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt. Turkey has demanded the extradition of 33 individuals in Sweden and Finland.
Turkey’s main concerns may be related to the Nordic countries’ Kurdish policies, but its “gripes with Nato run deep and its wish-list is long”, says Selcan Hacaoglu on Bloomberg. Chief among them is that Turkey wants the US to reverse its decision to punish the country for buying weapons from Russia by excluding it from the F-35 advanced aircraft programme.
Turkey will find it “challenging” to use its leverage over Nato expansion to achieve these aims, but it has previously “shown it’s willing to dig deep” to achieve its goals. Turkey does not object to Swedish and Finnish membership on principle, so an eventual compromise seems possible.