Recep Tayyip Erdogan agrees to Sweden joining NATO

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the evening of July 10 announced following a trilateral closed meeting in Vilnius, which was attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, that Ankara agreed to ratify the protocol on the admission of Stockholm to the military bloc. The meeting took place less than a day before the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital.

“I am pleased to announce that President Erdogan has agreed to send the protocol on Sweden’s membership to the Turkish Grand National Assembly as soon as possible. [в НАТО]and agreed to work closely with the assembly to secure ratification of the protocol,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference. But Stoltenberg noted that he does not know exactly when the parliament will vote on this issue: “I don’t have exact dates, but the president [Эрдоган] said they would do it as soon as possible.

But the European Union (EU) must clear the way for Turkey to join the European Union before Ankara approves Sweden’s bid for NATO membership. Erdogan made such a statement on July 10 at a press conference at the airport before leaving for the alliance’s summit in Vilnius.

Turkey entered into an association agreement with the European Economic Union in 1963, applied for EU membership in 1987, and in 1999 became a candidate for full membership in the union. But since 2006, negotiations on the subsequent integration of Turkey have stalled after the Europeans accused the Turkish authorities of violating human rights in the country and Erdogan personally of authoritarian governance practices.

“I appeal to those countries that have been making Turkey wait for more than 50 years at the door to the EU. First, open the way for Turkey to the EU, and then we will open the way for Sweden to NATO, as we have already done for Finland,” the Turkish president said.

On the eve of the forum, Erdogan held telephone conversations with US President Joe Biden, to whom he also said that “Ankara wants to receive a clear and decisive signal” about support for Turkey’s ambitions in the EU from NATO leaders. In addition, the heads of state discussed the modernization of Turkish F-16 fighter jets, with Erdogan noting that it is “incorrect to link” Ankara’s request for US aircraft to Stockholm’s bid for NATO membership.

Washington in 2021 excluded Turkey from the F-35 fighter supply program due to Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems. In addition, the US Congress, under various pretexts, also prevents the sale of F-16 aircraft to the Turkish armed forces and the modernization of the existing fleet of these aircraft. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg supported Turkey’s desire to join the EU, while noting that this item was not included in the agreement on Sweden’s entry into the alliance, adopted last year in Madrid. According to him, Stockholm, for its part, fulfilled its obligations to Ankara.

Sweden applied for membership in the North Atlantic Alliance in May 2022, but Turkey has not yet ratified its entry into NATO. Turkish authorities accuse the Swedish government of providing political asylum to terrorists, including activists of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK, designated terrorist by Ankara), as well as supporters of the preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom Turkish authorities believe was the organizer of the 2016 coup attempt.

On the evening of July 10, Turkish television channel TRT Haber reported that Sweden had confirmed that it would not support the PKK and Syrian Kurdish paramilitaries. Also, Stockholm, according to the channel, promised that it would actively support Turkey’s EU membership process, including the renewal of the Customs Union and a visa-free regime.

On July 1, a new anti-terrorist law came into force in the Scandinavian state, but the Turkish authorities continued to declare the incomplete nature of these measures. Until the last moment, only one accused of terrorism has been extradited to Ankara, and the Turkish side is seeking the extradition of more than 70 people. In addition, the Swedish authorities sanctioned the June 28 action with the burning of the Koran at a mosque in Stockholm, which provoked a protest from Turkey.

Membership in the EU and membership in NATO are in no way procedurally and essentially related phenomena, says Alina Vernigora, junior researcher at IMEMO RAS. For example, Ankara is consistently moving away from EU standards both in terms of human rights, and in the economy, the functioning of the state apparatus, and the legal framework, says Vernigora.

Erdogan’s statement about the necessary entry into the EU is not necessarily audacity and a technically impossible ultimatum to exchange Sweden’s NATO membership for Turkey’s EU membership, admits Arif Asalioglu, director general of the International Institute for the Development of Scientific Cooperation. In his opinion, this is a veiled request for financial and other economic assistance from the EU, where Germany is the main importer of Turkish goods.