2023-07-10 20:52:01
For a long time, Turkey prevented Sweden from joining NATO, but now President Erdogan is giving up his blocking stance. Despite the recent anger about another burning of the Koran in Stockholm and a surprising new demand.
According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Turkey no longer wants to block Sweden’s accession to NATO. At a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to submit the accession protocol to the Turkish parliament as soon as possible, Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Vilnius on Monday evening. Erdogan, Kristersson and Stoltenberg had previously met in the Lithuanian capital one day before the NATO summit.
However, Stoltenberg dodged the question of when Sweden’s NATO accession could be completed. He only reiterated that there was a clear commitment to forward the ratification documents to Parliament.
Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership in May 2022 under the impression of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. At the beginning of April, Finland became the 31st member of the alliance. Sweden, on the other hand, still lacks the approval of Turkey and Hungary, which was primarily due to Turkey’s blockade attitude. Hungary recently reaffirmed that it would not stand in the way of Sweden’s admission should Turkey give the green light.
The Turkish leadership has been blocking Sweden’s accession for over a year. She points out that the Scandinavian country is not taking sufficient action against “terrorist organizations” – she is primarily concerned with the banned Kurdish workers’ party PKK. The fact that at the end of June, for the first time in months, a Koran was set on fire at a demonstration in Stockholm, recently put additional strain on relations with Ankara.
Before flying to Vilnius, the 69-year-old surprisingly made his approval dependent on an upturn in Turkey’s accession talks to the EU. “First pave the way for Turkey into the European Union, after that we pave the way for Sweden, just like we paved it for Finland,” he said in Istanbul addressing EU countries.
When announcing the meeting with Erdogan and Kristersson on Friday, Stoltenberg made it clear that he was counting on an end to the Turkish blockade. Any further delays would only be welcomed by the PKK and Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said. Despite Erdogan’s advance, he remained optimistic before the meeting on Monday and spoke of a possible “positive decision”.
For a long time, the goal in Stockholm was to resolve the Turkish blockade by the Vilnius summit. It is still unclear when exactly Erdogan’s positive signal will come. The next session of Turkey’s parliament is scheduled for Tuesday, which means it could, at least in theory, give its approval while the two-day summit in Vilnius is underway. If the Hungarian parliament then also ratifies quickly, Sweden could soon officially become the 32nd member of NATO.
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