Meeting on NATO enlargement: Turkey sees positive signals

Sweden and Finland have made renewed efforts to overcome Turkey’s objections to the two countries joining NATO. There is now said to have been a rapprochement on the issue of the arms embargo. But Turkey expects more.

There is movement in the dispute between Turkey and the other NATO countries about Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance. Both countries have taken a positive stance on lifting the arms embargo against Turkey, President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said after talks with representatives of the three countries in Ankara.

Nevertheless, he made accession dependent on the fulfillment of further Turkish demands. Turkey’s security concerns have been made clear once again and concrete steps are expected in this regard, Kalin said. Otherwise the process of NATO membership cannot progress. The Scandinavian countries should take action against propaganda and financing of “terrorist organizations” such as the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party and the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG. Turkey is also expecting the extradition of 28 people from Sweden and 12 from Finland, whom it accuses of terrorism.

Arms exports were restricted in 2019

Turkey is currently the only NATO member to publicly block the start of the process of admitting the two Nordic countries into the alliance. President Erdogan accused both states of harboring people with ties to terrorist groups like the PKK and the YPG. He demanded her extradition. However, the Swedish government did not comply.

While the PKK is recognized as a terrorist group in the US, EU and Turkey, the YPG and the Gülen movement are not. The latter blames Turkey for the attempted coup in 2016. The YPG – US ally in the Syrian civil war – sees Ankara as an offshoot of the PKK. After a Turkish military offensive against the Kurdish militia YPG in Syria in 2019, Sweden, Finland and Germany, among others, restricted arms exports to Turkey.

“Send no money or weapons”

Sweden and Finland submitted their applications for membership to NATO in Brussels last week. Both countries thus drew the consequences of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and want to give up their decades-old neutrality. Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said her government wanted to clarify allegations raised during talks with Turkey. “We don’t send money or weapons to terrorist organizations.” Sweden is conducting a “constructive dialogue” with Turkey. Stockholm is keen to clear up problems, misunderstandings and questions.

Since Turkey is currently rejecting Sweden and Finland’s membership, the two countries cannot count on rapid admission to NATO. All 30 NATO members must agree for membership to be granted. The dispute could damage the credibility of the military alliance. EU diplomats assume that the “terrorist” accusation is only an excuse and that the Turkish government is actually pursuing the lifting of an export ban on military goods. The main focus is on the purchase of US fighter jets.