Why Turkey doesn’t want Sweden, Finland to join NATO
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The two Nordic countries were to quickly be accepted into NATO as soon as Sweden and Finland announced their interest in joining NATO. But joining NATO requires consensus approval from all existing members, and Turkey – one of the group’s most strategically important and militarily powerful members – is not happy.
The reasons why are complicated, emotional and steeped in decades of often violent history.
Historic decision
Finland and Sweden are non-aligned, but they did last weekend. announced plans to abandon that positionJoin NATO immediately following Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Since the 1990s the NATO alliance has been officially partnered with Russia. The idea that some Nordic countries might join the group was a surprise to Moscow. NATO expansion was cited as a reason for invading Ukraine.
Now, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has the power to determine the future of the NATO alliance — and its power and size in the face of Russia’s war.
Erdogan, in fact, has blocked NATO from fast-tracking Finland’s and Sweden’s application. He claimed that the NATO membership would “make it a place where terrorist groups are concentrated.”
NATO was expanded to allow in the three former Soviet countries and all ex-Warsaw Pact members as of 2022.
CNBC – Bryn Bache| CNBC
The clash has sent Western diplomats scrambling to bring Turkey on side, as Ankara presented a list of grievances to NATO ambassadors about its issues with the Nordic states – Sweden in particular.
How does Turkey feel about Finland and Sweden?
When Erdogan talks of “terrorists” in this context, he means the Kurdish Workers’ Party, or the PKK – a Kurdish Marxist separatist movement that has been fighting Turkish forces on-and-off since the 1980s. The movement operates mainly in parts of northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.
Turkey and Canada have classified PKK, Australia, Australia, and other terrorist organizations as part of their anti-terrorism efforts.
Sweden was among the countries that first designated the group terrorist in 1984.
Turkey however claims that Sweden supported PKK-members and provided protection for them. Sweden denies this, saying it supports other Kurds who are not in the PKK – but the details are more complicated.
CNBC reached out to Sweden’s foreign minister for comment about Erdogan’s claims.
Between 1984 and 2004 there have been 30,000 and 40,000 people are estimated to have diedCrisis Group reports that the PKK has been fighting against the Turkish government. The PKK has carried out numerous attacks in Turkey.
Turkish Armed Forces members (TSK), continue to fight the PKK. Turkey has listed the PKK as a terrorist group by the U.S., EU and EU. The operation is part of Operation Peace Spring in Ras Al Ayn Syria, October 17.
Getty Images| Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
When it comes to Finland, Turkey’s opposition to it joining NATO appears to be more by association – the country has a far smaller Kurdish population than Sweden, but its foreign policy tends to be similar.
Finland joined Sweden in banning the PKK from being a terrorist organisation. However, it also joined Sweden in ending weapons sales in Turkey to Turkey in 2019. This was in response to Ankara’s military intervention against Kurdish group in Syria.
Erdogan wants Sweden to extradite the list of terrorist suspects Turkey has named. Also, Erdogan wants Finland and Sweden to disavow PKK and their affiliates as well as lift Turkey’s arms ban.
Hakki, an ex-diplomat from Turkey, believes the Turkish view is very simple.
Finland and Sweden must stop supporting terror organizations if they want to become a part of an alliance for security. [PKK] and not give refuge to them. However, they must accept Turkish requests to extradite 30 terrorists. [which are]Very specific cases
What is the significance of Kurdish people to Turkey?
The Kurdish people are often described as the world’s largest ethnic group without a homeland – an estimated 30 million people. They are Sunni Muslim and speak a unique language.
Nearly 20% (84 million) of Turkey’s population are Kurdish. Some Kurds hold important posts in Turkish society and politics, but many claim they face discrimination and crackdowns by the Turkish government.
Spread out between Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, they have been heavily persecuted, marginalized and even been victims of genocide in the counties where they live – see Saddam Hussein’s chemical gas attacks that killed nearly 200,000 Kurds in Iraq in the late 1980s. Over the past decades, various Kurdish groups and individuals have been pushing for Kurdish statehood and autonomy, sometimes peacefully but also violently like the PKK.
Kurds celebrate their support of the September 26th independence referendum, Duhok, Iraq.
Reuters| Reuters
Kurdish fighters from Syria, who were linked to the PKK, played an important role in fighting ISIS. They received weapons support and financial funding from both the U.S. and Europe including Sweden. This led to tensions and Turkey launched attacks against the Kurds living in Syria.
CNBC’s Muhammet Kokoc, an Ankara-based international affairs specialist, said, “You are talking to people who have been fighting with Turkey more than 40 years, killing tens, thousands of civilians in that process.”
Turkey doesn’t like the fact they have suddenly turned into good guys because ISIS is a threat to their security.
Western countries praised the Kurdish fighters and many EU countries placed various embargoes upon Turkey because of their targeting Kurdish militias fighting in Syria. These actions highlighted the difficult differences between the perceptions of the fighters by each side.
Sweden’s relations with Kurdish organizations
According to Hussein Ibish – a senior researcher at the Arab Gulf States Institute, Washington, the root of tension between Turkey and Sweden lies in how each country defines terrorist.
This is not just about Sweden’s openness to Kurdish refugees or political dissidents/activists. Ibish stated that it was also due to differing views on what is considered intolerable Kurdish extremeism.
Turkey considers Kurdish front groups that it is strongly opposed to as PKK. This includes non-PKK Kurdish organizations and entities in Turkey, as well as the Western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria (SDF), and several other Iraqi Kurdish factions.
Sweden has been known for its long-standing acceptance of Kurdish refugees as well as asylum seekers. A number of Kurds are even represented in Sweden’s Parliament.
While most of the Kurds living in Sweden – which local groups say number as many as 100,000 – have no affiliation with the PKK, the Swedish government has supported members of other Kurdish organizations, particularly the political wing of the PKK’s Syrian branch, called the PYD.
Sweden says the PKK and PYD are different – but Turkey says they are one and the same.
Stockholm financially and politically supports the Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing the SDF. This Kurdish-led militia was created to combat ISIS in Syria with the support of the U.S. Ankara claims that PKK terrorists control the SDC.
Sweden’s government declared that in 2021 it will increase its funding for Kurdish organizations in Syria to $376million by 2023. The Swedish government stated that they remain an active partner to Syria Kurds, adding that their funds would be used to “strengthen resilience, human safety and freedom from violence”, and improve “human rights and gender equality, as well as democratic development.”
What is Sweden’s response?
Analysts believe that Erdogan’s government won’t make major concessions in the face of September’s Swedish election.
Many believe Erdogan will eventually not stop Sweden and Finland joining NATO, but rather seeks to increase his popularity back home.
Ibish from the Arab Gulf States Institute stated, “My suspicions are that Turkey, particularly if it is able to extract a few concessions there and then from the Western powers, and its NATO allies will not eventually seek out to block Finland/Sweden from joining the organization.”
The Russian invasion in Ukraine and the war which is now being fought on Turkey’s borders has brought back many Turks to NATO.
NATO might still find itself in gridlock if Erdogan does not accept the response of Sweden or Finland to his demands.
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