When Türkiye still says "no"
“Countries that want to join NATO must take a firm stance in the fight against terrorism,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told reporters after a meeting in Brussels on July 6 with his Swedish and Finnish counterparts as well as with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the country is not yet ready to accept Sweden's membership in NATO. Photo: GI
Türkiye has vetoed Sweden’s bid to join NATO, accusing it of harboring Kurdish exiles and refugees linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which both Stockholm and Ankara consider a terrorist organization. Sweden denies Turkey’s accusations and has introduced new anti-terrorism laws that make it easier to punish PKK supporters.
“Sweden has taken steps to change the law, but legal changes need to be reflected in practice,” Foreign Minister Fidan said, adding that “terrorists” continued to operate outside Sweden.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who called the meeting as a last-ditch effort to break the ice blocking Sweden from joining the organization before next week's annual NATO summit, remained optimistic, saying Swedish membership was "within reach".
“I think Sweden has fulfilled all the requirements for ratification, but Türkiye has not agreed,” Stoltenberg said, adding that Sweden and Türkiye are planning to meet again on Monday before the formal NATO summit begins on Tuesday in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.
“We are all working towards a positive outcome at the meeting in Vilnius, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Mr Stoltenberg said.
Meanwhile, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom also said progress had been made. “We hope to have a positive announcement next week, but that is Turkey’s decision,” he told reporters.
Sweden's efforts are not enough
Sweden and neighbouring Finland applied to join NATO after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict last year, upending decades of non-aligned security policy, but were blocked by Türkiye.
Swedish officials say Türkiye is making impossible demands by asking Stockholm to hand over some 120 people without telling Sweden who they are.
Sweden has taken a number of steps to assuage Türkiye’s concerns, including lifting an arms embargo and passing a law that makes it harder for Kurdish exiles in the country to support the PKK. The law came into effect on June 1.
On Thursday, hours before foreign ministers met in Brussels, the Stockholm Court used the law for the first time, sentencing a 41-year-old man to four and a half years in prison for trying to raise funds for the PKK through blackmail and shooting and threatening a person.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he remains optimistic about Sweden's chances of joining. Photo: Bloomberg
The persistent rift between Türkiye and other NATO members has left the alliance facing its most serious challenge in decades. In a further sign of division, Stoltenberg announced earlier this week that he would stay on as secretary general for another year after member states failed to agree on a successor.
Thursday’s talks in Brussels followed a meeting Wednesday between US President Joe Biden and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at the White House. President Biden said he was “very much looking forward” to Sweden joining the bloc.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, on Wednesday and “emphasized the importance of NATO unity at such a critical time,” the State Department said.
According to the NATO charter, membership of a country requires the consent of all members. Currently, Hungary, in addition to Türkiye, has not ratified Sweden's application. But it has signaled that it will agree to admit Sweden once Turkey drops its objections.
If Türkiye nods at a meeting in Vilnius next week, Sweden's full NATO membership could still take several weeks as the Turkish and Hungarian parliaments would need to approve it, and accession documents would need to be signed and sent to Washington, as the US is the guarantor of NATO's founding treaty.
Bringing into NATO Sweden and Finland, two large neighbors of Russia that have invested heavily in defense, would reshape Europe's security landscape and strengthen the bloc with military and political might.
Finland became a NATO member in April after splitting its application from Sweden, but wants its neighbor to follow suit. “Finland’s membership is not complete until Sweden is also a member of NATO,” Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told Swedish radio station SRF on Thursday, ahead of the meeting in Brussels.
More trouble because of Quran burnings
Sweden's diplomatic efforts abroad to appease Türkiye have been undermined by fresh controversy over a series of Quran burnings in front of the Turkish embassy and mosques in Stockholm.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cited anti-Islam protests as another reason not to admit the Nordic country to NATO, while Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Sweden had failed to find “mechanisms to prevent provocations.”
The burning of Qurans in front of the Turkish Embassy and mosques in Stockholm is making things difficult for Sweden. Photo: GI
Last week, during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, an Iraqi Christian immigrant burned the Muslim holy book outside a Stockholm mosque. Swedish police this week received three applications for permission to burn new religious books, including one to burn a Quran in front of a Stockholm mosque.
The Quran burnings have sparked renewed debate about the limits of free speech in Sweden, a country that prides itself on its secularism and tolerance of religious minorities. A recent poll commissioned by SVT found that a majority of Swedes, 53 percent, now support a ban on burning Qurans and other holy books, up 11 percentage points since February.
Hate speech targeting ethnicity or race is illegal in Sweden, but the country has no blasphemy laws. The Swedish government says it strongly opposes anti-Muslim acts such as Quran burnings. But given the strong statements Turkey made after the foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels, it seems that mere protests against the Quran burnings are not enough to win Stockholm any points with Ankara.
And clearly, the path to NATO for Sweden still contains many challenges.
Quang Anh
Source
Comment (0)