Erdogan hesitated for a long time. In the end, Turkey ratified Sweden's accession to NATO – apparently without receiving the often asked for in return.
Ankara – Turkey has officially agreed to Sweden joining NATO. The so-called accession protocol was signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed and published in the government gazette. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was relieved: “We welcome the approval of the Türkiye to ratify Sweden's accession to NATO. “This marks an important milestone on Sweden’s path to NATO membership,” Kristersson wrote on X.
Sweden joins: Turkey agrees – and gets nothing in return
The negotiations with Turkey had dragged on for a long time. After Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO. But for more than a year and a half, Turkey refused to give its consent. Ankara repeatedly linked a yes to new demands Sweden and other NATO members should initially fulfill.
For example, Turkey gave Sweden a list with several names of people who were to be extradited – including several journalists. Ankara also called for Sweden's anti-terror laws to be tightened. From the USA Erdogan demanded, for example, the sale of modern F-16 fighter jets.
US Congress makes Türkiye wait for F-16
But did Ankara get what it asked for? According to journalist Bülen Kenes, this is more than questionable. “Even the sale of the F-16 fighter jets by the USA is not guaranteed,” says the scientist, who lives in exile and currently works for the think tank “European Center for Populism Studies”. According to him, US President Joe Biden only wrote a letter to Congress in which he spoke out in favor of approving the F-16 sale, explains Kenes in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA.
“However, it remains to be seen whether Congress will accept this. “Due to the autonomous power of the US Congress, especially in the Senate, where senators can act independently of party discipline, the likelihood of a negative congressional decision on the F-16 sale is quite high,” says Kenes, who has previously voted for The Stockholm Center for Freedom was active – an interest group that was founded in 2017 by exiled journalists and is said to be close to the Gülen movement. Erdogan had in a joint press conference During Kristersson's visit to Ankara in November 2022, the “terrorist” Kenes was called for to be extraditedwho was formerly the newspaper's editor-in-chief Today's Zaman was.
Sweden does not extradite people from the “terrorist list” to Turkey
But Erdogan's demands were not only rejected in the USA. The situation is similar in Sweden. “In fact, the Erdogan regime has achieved nothing so far with its one and a half year-long blackmail policy against Sweden. The Terrorism Law was drafted before 2020. On the other hand, Erdogan had given Sweden a list of people whom he himself had described as terrorists and demanded their extradition,” said Kenes in an interview with our editorial team.
Turkey was one of the partner countries in building the F-35 fighter jets. However, the country was suspended from this program after it purchased the Russian S-400 air defense system despite warnings from NATO. The country paid $2.5 billion for it and is not using it. Turkey was originally supposed to receive 100 modern F-35s.
US fighter jets: Erdogan wants to conclude the F-16 deal before local elections
The Turkish president still hopes to conclude the F-16 deal before the upcoming local elections on March 31 this year. “We hope that the USA “Enable the deployment of the F-16 to Turkey to begin as soon as possible,” Erdogan said in Istanbul. A success story would be Erdogan and his ruling party ACP to help recapture the metropolises and Istanbul.
However, NATO membership is not yet guaranteed for Sweden. Hungary also still has to ratify Sweden's accession to NATO. However, Prime Minister Viktor Orban had promised to push ahead with his country's approval.
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