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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at NATO headquarters in Brussels (2021)
Photo: YVES HERMAN / REUTERS
Turkey has blocked the start of talks on the admission of Finland and Sweden to NATO for the time being.
This is reported by the dpa news agency, citing information from alliance circles.
Accordingly, it was not possible in the NATO Council, as originally planned, to take the decision necessary to start the admission process.
The »Süddeutsche Zeitung« also reports that Turkey has not agreed to officially start the accession process.
Sweden and Finland had officially applied for NATO membership in the morning.
It was actually intended that the NATO Council would then immediately decide to start accession talks.
However, as the dpa reports, Turkey raised security concerns at the meeting and made it clear that it cannot agree at this point in time.
A spokesman for the alliance declined to comment on the talks in the NATO Council.
He only emphasized that Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was determined to find a quick solution for Finland and Sweden.
"Both countries are our closest partners and joining NATO would strengthen Euro-Atlantic security," he said.
Turkey demands extradition of Kurds
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Sweden of refusing to extradite 30 "terrorists".
“NATO is a security association, a security organization.
In this respect, we cannot say yes to making this security body unsafe,” said Erdoğan.
Erdoğan describes supporters of the banned Kurdish Workers' Party PKK, which is also considered a terrorist organization in the USA and Europe, as "terrorists".
Turkey also sees the Kurdish militia YPG in Syria as a terrorist organization - for the USA, on the other hand, the YPG in Syria is an ally.
Erdoğan has meanwhile made it publicly clear again that he makes approval of NATO accession for the two Nordic countries dependent on approaching his country on security issues.
For Turkey, NATO expansion goes hand in hand with the respect shown to its sensitivities, he said in a speech to his conservative Islamic governing party, the AKP, in Ankara.
Erdoğan complained that Sweden and Finland wanted to continue supporting "terrorist organizations", but at the same time Turkey's approval for NATO membership.
"That's a contradiction, to say the least."
Thin evidence
From the point of view of experts, however, Turkey has failed to provide evidence for the allegations.
"Turkish politicians simply don't understand the difference between supporting demands for Kurdish political autonomy and actual terrorism," said Salim Çevik from the Center for Turkish Studies at the dpa's Science and Politics Foundation.
Turkey's definition of terrorism is "extremely broad and lax, and any act can easily be labeled terrorism," Çevik continued.
Ankara's general approach to NATO expansion is also damaging to Turkey's already tarnished image as a reliable NATO partner.
Turkey-US talks
Until recently, it was unclear how Turkey could be prevented from vetoing Sweden and Finland's NATO membership.
According to diplomats, in addition to statements by the two northerners on the fight against terrorism, arms deals could also play a role.
The government in Ankara, for example, wants to buy F-16 fighter jets in the USA – but a possible deal was recently politically controversial in Washington.
There is now hope that talks by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in New York could bring movement to the dispute.
Çavuşoğlu wanted to meet his US colleague Antony Blinken there, among others.
"Diplomacy goes on," said a diplomat in Brussels on Wednesday.
col/dpa
