Turkey fully ratified Sweden’s NATO membership bid a few days ago. The decision was published in the official bulletin released by the Turkish government.
Immediately after the ratification, news came in that Canada had lifted its embargo on the export of arms and drone parts imposed on Turkey. The U.S., in turn, approved the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.
ABC Media spoke with Turkologist Gevorg Galtakyan about this decision of Turkey’s, its interests and further developments.
“Turkey was first opposed to Sweden’s membership, chiefly justifying this position on the grounds of Sweden’s support to the Kurdish movement. On the other hand, it wanted to have an assurance that Sweden would support its EU membership. In fact, Turkey skillfully bargained over the issue to reap dividends, and we can say that its demands were partly met, even if only at the level of promises. After all, the dynamics in NATO are unique, and it was clear that there was a firm decision to make the countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula full members of the alliance and those imposing that decision on Turkey, of course, had certain levers and mechanisms, regardless of the fact that Erdogan harps on about its political independence,” he said.
The Turkologist did not rule out the possibility that Turkey might have been brought under pressure on this. “Thus, if Erdogan had resisted stubbornly, other measures would have been imposed on him; as for now, the carrot-and-stick approach has been adopted,” he said.
According to Galtakyan, Turkey demanded that a number of members of the Kurdish movement in Sweden be extradited; but Sweden did not want to do so. “I find it difficult to say what was decided backstage,” Galtakyan concluded.
