When Sweden and Finland expressed their intention to join NATO, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not hide his reluctance, believing it was a “bad idea” due to these two Nordic countries’ leniency towards Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK]classified as a terrorist by the European Union [UE] and the United States, as well as Fetö, the organization of preacher Fethullah Gülen, accused of inciting an attempted coup in Turkey in July 2016.
However, in order to join NATO, it is necessary to obtain the unanimous consent of the states that are already members… Sweden and Finland also risked having their plans thwarted for a long time… At least as long as Ankara would stick to its positions .
However, during the NATO summit organized in Madrid in June 2022, Turkey, Finland and Sweden signed an agreement that should unblock the situation.
After Stockholm and Helsinki confirmed that they consider the PKK a terrorist movement, they pledged not to support the Syrian Kurds. [liés politiquement aux Kurdes de Turquie, ndlr]”to carry out the fight against terrorism with determination and determination in accordance with the provisions of NATO documents and policies”, to unequivocally condemn all terrorist organizations carrying out attacks “on Turkish soil” and to strengthen their cooperation with Anakara in counter-terrorism.
In view of this, one last point is likely to cause some problems… In fact, the Swedish and Finnish authorities have also agreed to “swiftly” process extradition requests of terror suspects transmitted by Ankara and to negotiate at that time the end of the “necessary bilateral legal frameworks”. And Turkey sent a list of 73 names to Sweden.
However, this agreement did not settle everything by a long shot… First of all, from a legal point of view. “Non-Swedes can be extradited at the request of other countries, but only if this is compatible with Swedish law and the European Convention on Extradition,” then Swedish Justice Minister Morgan Johansson later argued.
Be that as it may, and although 28 out of 30 countries have given their consent, the accession of Sweden and Finland is far from certain. While Hungary is expected to normally give the green light, Turkey could hesitate for a while longer, although it said in December it had noted “positive steps” from Stockholm and Helsinki… while calling for “other important steps” to be its latest overcome objections.
“Turkey also confirms that we have done what we promised, but they also say that they want things that we cannot and do not want to give them,” said Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish Prime Minister of Sälen Defense and Security Conference [Suède], in the presence of Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General. And to add: “We are convinced that Turkey will make a decision, we just don’t know when”.
The concern is that the fate of Helsinki is linked to that of Stockholm. It is clear that the two capitals will join the alliance together in NATO… Pekka Haavisto, his foreign minister, reminded us of this. “Finland is not in such a hurry to join NATO that we can’t wait for Sweden to get the green light,” he told the press.
However, Mr. Stoltenberg wants to be reasonably optimistic. ” I expect [à ce que l’adhésion ait lieu en 2023]but I will not guarantee the exact date as it is of course a sovereign decision of the Turkish Parliament and the Hungarian Parliament, [qui] have not yet ratified the agreement,” he said in an interview with AFP.
“We had negotiations and they were quite demanding, […] when Turkey, Finland and Sweden agreed on a joint memorandum on how they could intensify their cooperation, both in terms of arms exports but also, for example, in the fight against terrorism,” he later recalled. And to add: “Finland and Sweden have respected this agreement and are clearly committed to long-term cooperation with Turkey on these issues. It is therefore time to complete the accession process and ratify the accession protocol”. It remains to be seen when…