Abroad|Correspondent ‘s comment
In their statements, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu were like night and day under the NATO meeting in Berlin, although Haavisto emphasized good communication.
Berlin
NATO At the start of the informal meeting of foreign ministers, there were only three words on the lips of the international media at the German Foreign Ministry’s premises: Finland, Sweden and Turkey.
Is Turkey blocking Finland’s and Sweden’s membership of NATO? The question suddenly arose on Friday night when the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan saidthat Turkey cannot take a positive view of Finland’s and Sweden’s membership of NATO.
The reason sounds absurd to the Finnish ear: the reason is the “support for terrorist organizations” in the two Nordic countries. Turkey refers to the Kurdish PKK and the YPG.
After the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu appeared at the NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Berlin on Saturday night, he smiled as if enjoying the attention that Turkey has arranged for itself.
Before Çavuşoğlu’s entry was heard by the Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haaviston (green) familiar but firm assurances that there are no grounds for Turkish terrorist talk in connection with Finland and Sweden. Haavisto referred to an anti-Isis meeting in which both countries recently attended Morocco.
Haavisto was the first entrant to the meeting and spoke extensively and thoroughly to the international media. Haavisto emphasized his good conversation and close contact with his Turkish colleague Çavuşoğlu.
After that, the meeting was followed by NATO foreign ministers who praised Finland’s and Sweden’s intentions to join NATO, their Nordic values and their friendship with Finland and Sweden.
The message from the Turkish Foreign Minister could not have more severely disrupted the harmony that prevailed in the speeches of the other participants. Çavuşoğlu reiterated Erdoğan’s message on Friday, saying that Finland and Sweden openly support terrorists. For allies and friends, he says that is “outrageous”.
Turkey ignores the fact that the Kurdish PKK is also a terrorist organization in the eyes of the EU. The message is therefore not credible. Sweden and Finland are now trying to explain this to Turkey.
In Germany, which now hosts the NATO Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is about a million Kurds, but in addition, the large Turkish population, whose growing support for Erdoğan has been the subject of talk for years.
NATO is not internally united in all its values, as is no NATO member state. Turkey is trying to take advantage of this situation by demanding, for example, a tougher line against the Kurds.
The diplomatic skills of Finland and Sweden are now being tested unexpectedly and hard. There is currently one clear loser in the game of Turkish attention, and that is Ukraine. We should talk about Ukraine.
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