Sweden Y Finland talks continue on Monday about joining the NATObut hopes of rapid accession seem to be fading due to Turkey’s blockade, which asks them to stop supporting Kurdish groups, which it considers terrorists.
The general secretary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)Jens Stoltenberg is due to meet Turkish, Swedish and Finnish representatives in Brussels on Monday in hopes of unblocking the talks ahead of an Alliance summit in Madrid next week.
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Before Turkey blocked the process last month, Stockholm and Helsinki hoped for a speedy accession process to the Alliance, which needs the unanimity of its 30 members. Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952.
“We are prepared for it to take time,” Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde told reporters in Luxembourg on Monday.
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The Finnish Prime Minister sanna marinalso acknowledged last week that there was a risk that things could “freeze” if the conflict was not resolved before the Madrid summit.
Meanwhile, Germany commented on Monday that the accession process could be delayed by “a few weeks”.
“Given the historical dimension” of the candidatures of Sweden and Finland, “it would not be a disaster if we needed a few more weeks” to reach a compromise, said a source from the German Executive.
“Concrete measures”
Last Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for “concrete measures” through written commitments from Sweden and Finland.
Ankara accuses both countries — mainly Sweden — of supporting Kurdish groups such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which it considers terrorists.
Also demands that the arms export blockades imposed by both countries be lifted after their military intervention in northern Syria in October 2019, a tightening of Swedish anti-terrorism legislation and the extradition of several individuals it considers to be terrorists.
For Paul Levin, director of the Institute of Turkish Studies at the University of Stockholm, that in the coming days there will be an unlocking “it is possible but it would be very difficult.” This “would imply that both sides show a real willingness to compromise,” he said during an interview with AFP.
Sweden it was one of the first countries to classify the PKK as a terrorist organization in the 1980s. But like many Western countries, it backed the YPG, allies of the PKK in Syria who fought Islamic State jihadists alongside the United States.
Sweden has already made some gestures, among them affirming that joining NATO could change the position of its authority in charge of exporting arms on Turkey.
In recent years, Sweden has also tightened its anti-terrorism legislation and will further strengthen it from July 1, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said last week.
a key deputy
But with its sizeable Kurdish community of some 100,000 people, “Sweden stands out … for being generally more supportive of the Kurdish cause,” Levin noted.
“From this point of view, Turkey may be right to focus on Sweden,” the academic noted.
“There is a real conflict between Sweden’s point of view on the Kurdish question and Turkish demands towards Sweden”, commented Li Bennich-Björkman, professor of political science at Uppsala University.
A dilemma that has manifested itself in recent weeks in the role played by the Swedish deputy of Iranian-Kurdish origin Amineh Kakabaveh, who opposes any concession to President Erdogan.
His voice is essential to securing support for Andersson’s minority Social Democratic government, given the precarious balance in the Swedish Parliament.
At the moment, “there is no one more powerful in Swedish politics than Kakabaveh,” Elisabeth Braw, a specialist in Swedish defense affairs at the American Entreprise Institute, told AFP.
The deputy threatened on Wednesday not to support the government’s budget, demanding a clear promise to embargo arms exports to Turkey.
But with the Swedish parliament in recess, Kakabaveh’s chances of influencing government policy are diminishing.
Source: Elcomercio
I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.