Turkey supports the NATO accession of Finland and Sweden: All parties involved signed a memorandum before the NATO summit in Madrid. Opinions differ on who won the struggle to join NATO.
The closer the NATO summit in Madrid drew nearer, the more pessimistic observers expressed about the prospects of an agreement with Turkey on the northern expansion of the alliance. Ankara had put in its veto and addressed a number of demands, particularly to combat terrorism, to Finland and Sweden. The sharp rhetoric gave no hope of a quick agreement.
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But things turned out differently. On the eve of the Madrid meeting, the parties involved signed a memorandum that largely reflects Turkey’s demands, and Turkey gave up its opposition to enlargement. In the joint document, Sweden and Finland commit to stepping up the fight against terrorism and lifting an arms embargo against Turkey that has been in place since 2019. A joint dialogue and cooperation mechanism is also to be set up.
Beate Apelt is project manager for Turkey at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Istanbul.
Opinions differ as to who won the struggle for the two Nordic countries to join NATO. That the memorandum almost fully addresses Turkey’s Turkish demands, thereby acknowledging its basic security needs, makes it seem like a Turkey victory.
But the devil is in the details. Formulations such as “PKK and all other terrorist organizations and their affiliates” and “individuals in groups or networks associated with or inspired by these terrorist organizations” define both sides quite differently. From a Turkish point of view, this includes practically every type of civil society organization that campaigns for the interests of Kurds. The EU states are unlikely to adopt this.
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Swedish and Finnish courts will have to decide in which cases the Nordic countries regard the terror allegations as well-founded and give in to the extradition requests. And they will strictly adhere to their legal standards. In doing so, they will not always live up to the expectations of Turkey, where the term terrorism is now being used in an inflationary manner and led to 1.6 million charges between 2016 and 2020 alone. The Swedish foreign minister tried to allay the concerns of Kurdish groups at the NATO summit: “We will not agree to any extradition as long as there is no evidence of terrorist activities,” she said, assuring that there was no reason for Kurds living in Sweden to to fear their democratic rights.
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