NATO accession: Turkey acknowledges Sweden's great "progress"

Created: 11/28/2022 11:34 am

By: Erkan Pehlivan

Flags of Nato, Turkey, Finland and Sweden © IMAGO/Sascha Steinach

Sweden and Finland want to join NATO.

Turkey is still blocking it.

But positive signals are coming from Ankara.

• NATO expansion:

  Sweden and Finland are negotiating with Turkey about joining NATO

• Ankara makes demands:

  Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demands concessions

• NATO accession:

  All the latest news on the negotiations for Sweden and Finland to join NATO in our newsticker

STOCKHOLM – Turkey reports progress in the process of joining Sweden and Finland in NATO.

This was announced by government representatives of Turkey after a joint meeting.

"Sweden has fully respected the trilateral memorandum and is moving closer to NATO," said Swedish negotiator Oscar Stenstrom after the meeting in Stockholm.

"We have shared a number of ideas with the police and their counterparts in Turkey to speed up the fight against the PKK's terrorist threat to Turkey," Senstrom told a local radio station after the Nov. 25 meeting.

NATO enlargement: The growing defense alliance

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Ankara continues to demand concessions

Ankara is blocking the accession of both states to the western defense alliance and is demanding concessions.

Among other things, it accuses both countries of supporting terrorist organizations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also demanding the extradition of several "terrorists" from Turkey who have found refuge in the countries as political refugees, including several journalists, Kurdish activists and teachers.

Just recently, Sweden amended its anti-terrorist law with promises that it will strengthen law enforcement agencies in fighting terrorist organizations.

The law will come into force on January 1st.

A corresponding amendment to the constitution was passed by the Swedish parliament in mid-November.

While acknowledging that Sweden and Finland have taken some positive steps, the AKP government expects the new law to be implemented in Sweden in the first quarter of 2023.

Sweden halts humanitarian aid projects in northern Syria

Sweden has already stopped its aid projects in northern Syria, says the Middle East consultant of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), Samal Sido, in an interview with Fr.de from IPPEN.MEDIA.

“Sweden has halted humanitarian projects in northern Syria.

These include, for example, water treatment plants”.

These projects were discontinued under pressure from Turkey.

Turkey accuses the self-government in northeast Syria of being terrorist.

Sido also fears that the pressure on opposition members who have fled in the country could increase, for example, where their freedom of expression is restricted.

(Erkan Pehlivan)