NATO member Turkey had initially vetoed the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO, saying that the Scandinavian nations have provided asylum to Kurdish leaders. Turkey sees the Kurdistan movement as a threat to its national security. Kurds are an ethnic minority in the Middle East.
But what is the role of NATO wrt modern Kurds?
Kurdish groups (backed by NATO) have held considerable resourcerich territory in Syria. Russia arrived there on the invitation of the Syrian government, to fight the invaders, and later helped the Assad government recover territory from ISIS.
•The Kurdish PKK is designated as a “terrorist” group in Turkey,
the European Union, and the United States.
•Turkey considers any support for the Syrian YPG, which it views as an offshoot of the PKK, akin to support for the PKK.
•The YPG has been backed by many Western nations.
The Kurdish-Syrian YPG helps to secure vital oil supplies for the United States, from Syria’s annexed territories.
• Turkey has conducted several military operations in both Syria and Iraq over the past few years, targeting the PKK and the YPG.
• YPG has so far received support from Sweden and Finland.
• Turkey also wanted the Nordic nations to lift their bans on the sales of some arms to Turkey.
28th June 2022 – A breakthrough was reached before the NATO Summit at Madrid.
Terms of the NATO Turkey deal
• Sweden will intensify work on Turkish extradition requests of suspected Kurdish fighters.
• Swedish and Finnish asylum and extradition law will be amended to toughen their approach to suspected Kurdish fighters.
Sweden and Finland have promised “full cooperation with Turkey in the fight against the PKK and its affiliates,” including the YPG.
Both will support Turkey on PKK, stop support to YPG.
• Sweden/Finland will lift their arms embargo against Turkey.
• They will amend their laws on terrorism.
• They will share Intel with each other.
• They will extradite terror suspects.
• Finland and Sweden will support Turkey’s participation to EU’s PESCO Project on military mobility.
• Turkey, Finland and Sweden will establish a permanent joint mechanism to consult on justice, security and intelligence.
Accordingly, Sweden and Finland started the process of handing over Kurds to Turkey.
On 5th July 2022, the 30 NATO allies signed the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland.
The NATO membership bids of Sweden and Finland have now been sent to the NATO members’ capitals for legislative approvals (by their parliaments).
Remember that all 30 NATO members must ratify in their parliaments, so that Sweden and Finland can join.
But Turkey is once again threatening to freeze Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bids.
Turkey is also stepping up the heat on the West, by incorporating its banking system with the Russian MIR (parallel to the Western SWIFT).
The strong $ against the Lira has caused high inflation in Turkey. Turkey expects to solve it by moving to non-dollar trade.
Why is Turkey pressurizing the West now?
• Turkey says that Sweden has not yet extradited suspects Turkey seeks over terrorism-related charges.
• Sweden's Justice Minister Morgan Johannsson had previously said that the country would follow international and local laws in evaluating extradition requests and would not extradite Swedish citizens.
• Finnish President Sauli Niinisto stressed that Helsinki would also be guided by the rule of law when it comes to extraditions.
It is also claimed that Turkey now wants the West to accept its complete de facto annexation of Northern Cyprus. Turkey is using its NATO veto power for entry of Sweden and Finland, as leverage to hold the West ransom – allow us to annex Northern Cyprus, or lose Sweden and Finland from NATO.
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