Turkey makes demands to Sweden and Finland/Getty Images
Turkey has decided to use its NATO membership to deal with adversaries who have taken refuge in Sweden and Finland. Now these two countries are faced with a difficult choice.
The accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO must be agreed upon by all member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance. Including Turkey. However, official Ankara has a lot of claims against these countries. And now Turkey has decided to seize the moment to deal with this.
The Yeni Şafak publication writes that Turkey sent Sweden and Finland a list of ten demands to the countries. After their adoption, the country will agree to the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO.
Perhaps the main theme in these demands is the situation with regard to organizations that are recognized as terrorist in Turkey. Among them are the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (RPPP-F), the Islamic State (ISIS), the Fethullah Gülen Movement and their various branches. Some of these organizations have found refuge in Sweden and Finland, where they are active. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Fethullah Gülen of being involved in the 2016 coup attempt. See the preacher lives in the US and has a large army of fans.
Turkey demands to close the activities of these organizations in Sweden and Finland, including freezing their assets, closing websites and media outlets, and prohibiting the display of their symbols. Among the demands are the deportation and extradition of persons suspected of having links with terrorism.
In total, these organizations have seven items on the list at once.
Another item concerns the lifting of sanctions against the defense industry against Turkey. Sweden and Finland imposed them after Turkey launched a military operation in Syria to fight representatives of the PKK there.
Both countries were asked to remove restrictions on the defense industry against Turkey.
Both countries should share intelligence with Turkey.
The tenth paragraph stipulates that if Sweden and Finland become NATO members, they must fulfill these obligations.
Turkey's standing demands
After Sweden and Finland announced their intention to become NATO members , Turkey began to put forward a lot of demands . The country decided to recoup all previous images. After all, there were claims not only to Sweden and Finland, but also to other NATO countries, including the United States.
Turkey was sanctioned after the country purchased Russian S-400 air defense systems. Then Ankara was warned that such a purchase endangers the Alliance's aviation. But Turkey did buy weapons from Russia and installed them. For this, the country was excluded from the development of the F-35 aircraft and did not sell a new batch of F-16s. Now Turkey tried to put pressure on the United States because of Finland and Sweden, but failed.
The point that Sweden and Finland must comply with Turkey's demands is due to the fact that the country had already “baked” at one time on broken promises. In Turkey, this has already been called “mistakes of the past.” We are talking about the return of Greece to NATO. The country was admitted to the Alliance in 1952, as was Turkey. But she got out of there in 1974, when the war in Cyprus began. In 1980, Greece wanted to return to NATO. And Turkey agreed to this. But after that, it was Athens that became an obstacle on Turkey's path to EU membership, actively blocking Ankara's application. Territorial disputes continue between the countries over parts of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas.
