Turkey Announces Opposition to Sweden, Finland Joining NATO
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that he is “not favorable” to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, a move that sets up a veto on their membership efforts.
In comments to reporters on Friday, Erdogan said that Turkey was “following developments concerning Finland and Sweden, but we are not of a favorable opinion.” He cited the Scandinavian countries’ support for Kurdish armed groups in Syria as the reason for this opposition.
Turkey considers ethnic Kurdish Muslims – who, through the domestic Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), wish to secede from Turkey to form a united Kurdistan – enemies of the state, and has launched military operations against them. These moves have caused a schism in NATO, particularly with France, which relied on Kurdish forces’ important ground support in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Erdogan also claimed that Turkey, a member of the alliance since 1952, made a historical mistake in approving the readmission of Greece to NATO in 1980 after a military coup d’état. Both countries have long-running territorial disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean, including over maritime territory in the Aegean islands and the status of Cyprus – over which they nearly went to war in 1974. Erdogan said that Greece had successfully taken “an attitude against Turkey by taking NATO behind it.”
Erdogan’s announcement comes on the heels of Finland formally announcing that it will seek NATO membership, a major shift in the country’s long-standing foreign policy of neutrality. Finnish president Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin released a joint statement saying that “NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security,” and that “Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay” on Thursday. Swedish prime minister Magdalena Andersson, meanwhile, is expected to announce a decision to seek membership on Sunday.
Both countries have cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the basis for their membership plans. Russia shares a long border with Finland and has, historically, been involved in the country’s affairs during the Soviet Union. Sweden, meanwhile, has a long coastline along the Baltic Sea, where Russia’s Baltic fleet regularly operates.
Turkey, meanwhile, is said to have the warmest relations with Russia among NATO member-states. It controversially purchased the Russian S-400 air defense system over fierce opposition from the U.S. in 2019. Then-President Donald Trump expelled Turkey from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in retaliation. Negotiations have been underway with the Biden Administration to return Turkey to the program, with Erdogan’s announcement being seen by some as a move to gain leverage for readmission.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, a Scandinavian who once served as prime minister of neighboring Norway, said that both Sweden and Finland will be “warmly welcomed, and I expect that process to go quickly.” Erdogan’s announcement casts doubt on that expectation. Any new member’s accession protocol must be ratified by all existing member states, of which there are 30. Refusal by a state to ratify amounts to a veto on membership.
However, while Erdogan said that he is “not favorable” to the countries joining, he did not declare that Turkey would formally block an accession protocol. The announcement sets up the basis for negotiations with other member-states that NATO, Finland, and Sweden will have to undertake over the coming months for membership, which Russia has opposed.
