Ankara, hitherto reluctant to see the two countries join the Alliance, has finally lifted its vetotuesday.
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Finally, it’s okay. While he had been obstructing Sweden and Finland’s entry into NATO since mid-May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ended up lifting his veto on Tuesday, June 28. “I am delighted to announce that we have an agreement which paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO”, declared NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to the press. The two Nordic countries will therefore be officially invited on Wednesday to join the Alliance.
After several rounds of negotiations in recent weeks, the strong man of Ankara had met for several hours upon his arrival in Madrid (Spain), where the Alliance Summit is being held, with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinistö and the First Swedish Minister Magdalena Andersson.
Turkey was blocking the membership of Sweden and Finland because it accused them of harboring militants of the Kurdish organization PKK, which it considers “terrorist”. She also denounced the presence in these countries of supporters of the preacher Fethullah Gülen, suspected of having orchestrated a coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016.
Ankara also demanded the lifting of the blockades of arms exports decided against it by Stockholm after the Turkish military intervention in northern Syria in October 2019. It is won: within the framework of this agreement, the two Nordic countries are committed to “strengthen their cooperation” in the fight against terrorism with Ankara and to agree on “extraditions” members of Kurdish organizations that Turkey considers to be “terrorists”. Turkey got “what she wanted”that is to say the “full cooperation” Nordic countries against the PKK and its allies, the Turkish presidency said in its statement.