2023-12-26 17:43:00
For ten months now, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been increasing requests and demands regarding Sweden’s membership in NATO. This Tuesday, December 26, the deputies resumed the examination of the protocol to try to integrate the Nordic country before 2024.
A step forward on the part of Ankara, which is awaiting a green light from the United States on the commitment of F-16 aircraft. Indeed, at the beginning of December, President Erdogan had imposed as a condition for Ankara’s ratification the “simultaneous” ratification by the American Congress of the sale of F-16 fighter planes to Turkey.
As a reminder, in May 2022, while the war in Ukraine was in full swing, Finland and Sweden applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The first will be officially admitted in April 2023, while its neighbor will face a major obstacle: Turkey, a member since 1952.
Erdogan’s reluctance
The main reason for the head of the AKP (Turkey’s ruling party) to disagree was Sweden’s anti-terrorist policy.
“Scandinavian countries are havens for terrorist organizations”believes the Turkish president.
Sweden, which then responded with a constitutional reform in June 2023, did not win its case, Turkey and Hungary blocking its path during the NATO summit on July 12 and 13 in Vilnius. The Scandinavian country had nevertheless targeted the Kurdish Labor Party (PKK) in its reform, in the hope of convincing Ankara. They will have to wait until December 25 for the negotiations to be successful.
“We are seeing a change in Sweden’s policy, some decisions adopted by the courts,” Fuat Oktay, AKP deputy, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Parliament, remarked on Monday on the private channel NTV.
Proof that Mr. Erdogan is not completely closed to this membership, as long as he benefits from it.
Turkey wants to do well
Just before the NATO summit in Vilnius, the Turkish president was clear in his intentions:
“First pave the way for Turkey to join the European Union and then we will pave the way for Sweden,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A candidate since 1987, Turkey seems increasingly impatient to join the ranks of the 27. Since 2018, negotiations have been frozen and the EU’s positions do not seem to have wavered in the meantime. So, Ankara is turning to other solutions, such as renewing its aging air fleet.
But at the same time, the green light for the sale of F-16 remains blocked because of political tensions in the Middle East, in the midst of war in Israel and Hamas:
“Although the issues are not related, statements by Turkey – and its president – supporting Hamas have further complicated the process of selling the F-16s,” said the director of the German Marshall Fund in Ankara, Ozgur Unluhisarcikli. .
Still according to the expert, if the two countries move in the same direction, “we can hope for a near outcome”.
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