Turkish Objections to Swedish NATO Accession: Blockade and Stalemate

Turkey still blocks Swedish NATO accession. The two countries will discuss this on Thursday. Other NATO member states want Turkey to tack before the NATO summit in Vilnius starts next week. But according to Ankara, Stockholm does not keep to the agreements made.

The talks in Brussels are a final attempt to finalize Swedish accession before the summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius (July 11-12). All member states must agree to welcome a new member. Turkey and Hungary are opposed. Hungary’s government has said it will agree if Turkey does.

During last year’s annual NATO summit in Madrid, Turkey, Sweden and Finland made mutual agreements. The Scandinavian countries promised to do something about Turkish concerns. Finland is now a NATO member, but Sweden cannot yet count on Turkish approval.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered little hope on Monday that a breakthrough will be made in Brussels on Thursday. He said the Swedes should “do their homework first”. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan underlined on Tuesday that Turkey will not be rushed because of the Vilnius summit.

Photo: Bart-Jan Dekker

The first major Turkish objection to Swedish accession has been known since last year: Stockholm would keep two terrorist groups a hand above its head. Ankara wants Sweden to extradite about thirty members of the two groups and “no longer provide a home for militants”. In addition, Sweden must act on demonstrations by supporters.

Sweden is not the only country that according to Turkey is doing too little against militant Kurds and the Gülen movement. For example, Fethullah Gülen lives in the United States and the Americans support Kurdish militias in Syria and Iraq. But thanks to the unanimity needed to make Sweden a NATO member, Turkey now has a means of putting pressure on Stockholm.

According to some experts, Turkey is not only obstructive because of Sweden. Erdogan would also like to send a signal to Washington, where the administration of President Joe Biden has a lot less friendly attention for Turkey than that of his predecessor Donald Trump.

Two groups in Turkey’s sights

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been fighting the Turkish state for 38 years now. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The PKK has been designated as a terrorist organization by, among others, Turkey, the US and the EU (including Sweden). Turkey is also fighting Kurdish militias in Syria and Iraq.

The Gülen Movement is the network around the cleric Fethullah Gülen, according to Ankara responsible for a coup attempt in 2016. Some 300,000 arrests were made in the aftermath. The Gülen Movement is classified as a terrorist organization in Turkey.

The Swedish government has tried to accommodate Turkey. A new law was passed to criminalize participation in a terrorist organization and several PKK members were extradited.

Not every item on the Turkish list of requirements could be crossed off. The Swedish government is legally prohibited from handing over people with Swedish nationality to Turkey. At the end of last year, Sweden’s Supreme Court also banned the extradition of a government-critical Turkish journalist, whom Ankara says is a Gülen supporter.

The second major Turkish objection: Sweden is doing too little against anti-Islamic demonstrations. Swedish-Danish anti-immigration activist Rasmus Paludan set fire to a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm in January. To the fury of Turkey and other predominantly Islamic countries, he was given a permit for that demonstration.

Swedish police say they have since denied two other requests for Koran-burning demonstrations. But a court ruled in April that such a refusal is an infringement of freedom of expression.

At the end of June, another Quran was torn up, with a permit, this time at a large mosque in central Stockholm. The fact that this happened on Eid-al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), one of the most important Islamic holidays, is seen as an extra provocation by Turkey.

Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika burned a Koran at a mosque in Stockholm on June 28. Photo: AFP

The main question is what Ankara thinks it can bereach with the blockade of Swedish NATO membership. For Erdogan and his supporters at home, security issues such as the Kurdish issue are particularly important. On the other hand, the average Swedish voter is also very attached to principles such as freedom of expression and due process of law. The Swedish constitution also limits how far the government in Stockholm can accommodate Turkey.

“Turkey is asking for things that we cannot or will not supply,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in January. It appears that the situation has not changed substantially since then. The two countries and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will try to find a compromise in Brussels on Thursday that offers a way out of this stalemate.

2023-07-06 03:16:57
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