Turkey Continues to Threaten to Block Finland’s and Sweden’s Accession into NATO if Certain Promises are Not Met

On October 1, 2022, Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he is sticking to his guns and will only allow Finland and Sweden to join NATO under the condition that all promises made to Turkish authorities are met. 

“Until the promises made to our country are kept, we will continue our principled and determined structure [on Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO membership],” Erdogan said before Parliament on October 1 according to Turkish media outlet Anadolu. 

Previously in May, Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO. The Nordic countries were expected to receive a formal invitation to become NATO members, but Turkey ended blocking the entire accession process. 

In Madrid, the foreign ministers of Finland, Sweden, and Turkey signed off on a memorandum that would make it possible for the Nordic countries to join the US-dominated alliance.

This document outlines a commitment on the two Nordic countries’ part to cooperate with Turkey in fighting terrorist entities, such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its various branches. Erdogan later claimed that Sweden had vowed to extradite 73 people allegedly involved in terrorist activities that undermine the Turkish state.

On September 30, Sweden lifted the restrictions on the exports of military equipment to Turkey that were originally introduced back in 2019. 

On September 30, Sweden lifted restrictions on exports of military equipment to Turkey introduced back in 2019 in response to its invasion of northeastern Turkey — an area largely populated by Kurdish groups that the Turkish state deems as terrorist organizations.

Turkey is an interesting case. It’s an increasingly authoritarian managed democracy filled with political factions that are either Islamist or ethnonationalist in nature. As a result, it sticks out like a sore thumb among the liberal democracies that make up NATO.

Plus, when considering Turkey’s long-established strategy of geopolitical hedging between the East and the West, NATO members may finally have enough with Turkey and seek to expel it from the alliance. From there, the entire geopolitical landscape will be irreversibly changed, which could turn out to be a net negative for globalist cabal in the West.

 

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