Editorial Turkey got what it needed

Editorial|Editorial

Finland and Sweden’s door to NATO opened as Turkey, Finland and Sweden agreed on a memorandum of understanding late Tuesday night under a NATO summit. It serves as Finland’s and Sweden’s entry ticket to NATO membership negotiations.

The document was the price to be paid by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for a special but still typical Turkish trade. Turkey got what it wanted – and so did Finland and Sweden. NATO accession talks may already be progressing in Madrid.

In the document Finland, Sweden and Turkey commit themselves to supporting each other against threats to their security. Finland and Sweden are working on a sensitive subject in the agreement. For years, Turkey has accused NATO of not taking the security concerns of its second largest member seriously.

From the point of view of the credibility of Finland’s and Sweden’s own foreign and security policy, it is problematic that the document deals with how Finland and Sweden operate when it comes to the possible extradition of persons to Turkey at Turkey’s request. According to the President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö, the agreement does not oblige Finland to change its laws or extradition policy – according to Niinistö, extraditions are based on case-by-case consideration. According to Niinistö, Finland’s relationship with Kurdish organizations will not change.

Erdoğanin and in the interpretation of this ACP party, the terrorists are the Kurds and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is causing serious controversy for the United States and other Western allies. The United States and its allies have supported Kurdish fighters in the PKK, a sister organization of the PKK, in a complex power struggle in the Syrian war.

However, by slowing down Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership process, Erdoğan pushed terrorism-related issues to the agenda of the NATO Madrid Summit. NATO leaders, along with US President Joe Biden, will be listening to Turkey’s very radically different terrorist concerns from other NATO countries at its meeting on Thursday.

Turkey is an apparently bitter member of NATO. It accuses NATO of not taking its concerns seriously. At the same time, it’s a cold game. In addition to the YPG, Erdoğan’s anger is also directed at the Gülen movement, led by Fethullah Gülen, which Erdoğan accuses of attempting a 2016 coup. After a failed coup attempt in Turkey, cleansing of the Gylenists was carried out, sparing no human rights abuses.

Fethullah Gülen is influenced in the United States. Erdoğan has wanted the Gylinists to be defined as a terrorist organization, but the demand is impossible for NATO, the United States and the European Union. However, there are many shades of gray, and in the four-hour negotiations, Turkey, Finland and Sweden came up with formulations that adequately addressed Turkey’s terrorist concerns.

NATO, and especially the United States, hoped that the stalemate caused by Erdoğan could be resolved as if it were only a matter of negotiations between Finland, Sweden and Turkey. Now the torsion was just made to look like this.

Finland was required to be patient and playful. The restrained line towards Turkey’s demands was the right one and had the support of the people. However, Finland had no reason to hurry. Finland has very strong political guarantees from Biden and also from Britain if Finland needs support against Russia.

NATO the agreement is very important for the credibility of the open door policy. However, the agreement leaves a nasty aftertaste at the beginning of the NATO journey in Finland and Sweden. One may ask whether countries adhere to the basic regulations of their own foreign and security policy. That would be important in NATO.

The editorials are HS’s statements on a topical issue. The writings are prepared by HS’s editorial staff and reflect the magazine principle.