The secretary general of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said that Turkey had “clearly indicated its intention not to block” the entry of the two countries.
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Informally gathered in Berlin on Saturday 14 and Sunday, May 15, the foreign ministers of the 30 NATO member countries had planned to celebrate a “historic moment” with the membership requests, now official, of Finland and Sweden. “Members who simply have their card yet,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. With the statements on Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, enthusiasm had however been a little hooked.
A membership must be approved unanimously of the member states and Mr. Erdogan had indicated that he could not support the project of two countries favorable to “many terrorist organizations”. Namely the Kurdistan workers’ party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Army Branch of the Kurdish Democratic Union party in Syria, where it participated in the fight against the Islamic State organization. Sunday, the Turkish Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu still targeted “meetings” held by Swedish and Finnish officials with these organizations and delivery of weapons from Sweden to the YPG.
Lipping “misunderstandings” with Turkey
“I am a little disconcerted, said Finnish president Sali Niinistö. I had a conversation with President Erdogan about a month ago. It was he who mentioned our request for membership in NATO (…) And who said [that Turkey] would answer it favorably. I thanked it (…). So you can imagine that I am a little in confusion. “
On the Swedish side, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ann Linde, deemed it necessary to clarify “misunderstandings” but confirmed that like the United States and the European Union, his country considered the PKK well as a terrorist organization. On the other hand, Stockholm insists on maintaining dialogue with other Kurdish organizations.
Conversations between all the parties finally allowed the secretary general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, to assert, Sunday afternoon, that Turkey had “clearly indicated its intention not to block” the entrance to ‘Helsinki and Stockholm in the transatlantic club. The “strong support” of Antony Blinken, the head of American diplomacy, to the two Nordic countries has undoubtedly also influenced this turnaround.
If Ankara does not advance new objections, it is an accelerated procedure which will be launched to shorten the delay before a complete membership of the two countries. It took 13 months to integrate 30 e Member, North Macedonia, in 2020.
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