Why Does Turkiye Refuses Finland and Sweden’s Membership in NATO?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not show a positive attitude toward the accession of Finland and Sweden to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO, considering that this would be a mistake.

Reuters revealed that the US and NATO are confident that Turkiye would not hold up membership of Finland and Sweden in the Western military alliance.

The Turkish president's calculations are not only related to his attitude towards the Ukrainian war and the strategic relationship with Russia, but he also stressed in his statements that the two northern European countries have "many terrorist organizations."

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the Finns would be "very welcome" and promised a "smooth and fast" accession process.

Despite Russia's objections, there is a high possibility that the agenda of the NATO summit in Madrid on June 30 will include the two countries' application for membership.

 

More Tensions

The Turkish newspaper Sabah, in a report by the Turkish political scholar Burhanettin Duran, indicated that the new expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will bring more tensions besides the Russian war on Ukraine.

It added that as an issue that would bring European security into a new troubled era, the membership of these two countries in NATO would be a nightmare for Russia.

Moscow, which justified its invasion of Ukraine to stop NATO's expansion, now faces an even greater challenge, and the Kremlin has announced that it will consider Finland's and Sweden's accession to NATO a "clear threat" to Russia.

Not only did Russian officials say that Sweden and Finland's membership in NATO would not make Europe safer, but they also asserted loudly that their accession would "turn these two countries into a conflict zone" and "turn them into enemies that carry with them all possible risks,” and threatened retaliation, including carrying out "technical" military measures.

Burhanettin Duran concluded by saying: "Let us be prepared for Russia's pursuit, which it sees as being surrounded from the north, to deploy nuclear missiles in the Baltic Sea."

 

An Old Mistake

The expert on politics and the director of the Maghreb Center for Strategic Studies Zouhair Attouf told Al-Estiklal that: “Erdogan does not want to repeat the same mistake that happened when Turkiye allowed Greece to join. Erdogan has already made it clear that he is currently following developments related to Sweden and Finland, but Turkiye does not have a positive opinion because they made a mistake in NATO regarding Greece before against Turkiye.”

He added: “Turkiye also accuses Stockholm of harboring terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which Turkiye, the European Union, and the United States consider a terrorist organization.”

While the United States and Britain have supported both countries' membership in NATO, Turkiye has shown an unfavorable attitude towards it.

Erdogan made it clear that Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO would be a "mistake,” as was Greece's accession to the NATO treaty, indicating that he did not want to see "the repetition of the mistake" again.

Erdogan said: "Previous Turkish governments made a mistake about Greece joining NATO before, and we know Athens' positions toward Turkiye after it took cover in NATO."

He continued, "It is unfortunate that the Scandinavian countries have become like a guesthouse for terrorist organizations. The terrorist organizations PKK and DHKBC have lived in countries such as Sweden and occupy seats in their parliaments, so we cannot look at this positively."

The newspaper considered that Erdogan's position will provoke the resentment of some Western capitals, and some may say that he is against NATO solidarity and in favor of Russia, stressing that this is not relevant. Turkiye is one of the countries that wants to increase solidarity within NATO.

 

VETO Option

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ankara has done its best to maintain good relations with Russia and Ukraine on which its economy closely depends. It even hosted talks between Ukraine and Moscow twice in March in Antalya (southern) and then Istanbul.

This position may make Turkiye appear within NATO as a pro-Russian country like Hungary in Europe, Soner Cagaptay, an analyst at the Washington Institute, revealed to AFP by phone. "Its reasons may be legitimate, but this will contribute to harming Ankara's image within NATO," adding that these objections "should have been negotiated in a closed session."

It is not yet clear whether Ankara's statement that it is "not thinking positively" will mean that it will "veto" Finland and Sweden's membership application, however, it is not acceptable to Turkiye for the Scandinavian countries to act against the spirit of the alliance with regard to the PKK and Gulen."

Sabah added that it can be said that Turkiye is more uncomfortable with Sweden's policies than Finland. While Swedish public opinion is discussing the request to join NATO, some Swedish analysts refer to Article 5 of the NATO Charter and say: "Will we have to defend Turkiye?" and they conclude by saying that they do not have to defend it, despite Article 5.

It noted that this bold discussion of a country harboring the PKK is upsetting for Turkiye.

As one of the most important members of the 30-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a defense organization that requires consensus in its decisions, it is natural for Turkiye to demand a change in its current policies from countries that conflict with its security interests.

The newspaper considered that Turkiye has the right to respond to those who criticize its operations in Syria to combat terrorism and establish a safe zone for asylum seekers and that Ankara wants, by adopting the main NATO objectives, its allies to have a positive attitude to its sensitivities towards its national security. The decision now lies with the other influential members of NATO.