Turkey has finally given the green signal for the two new countries, Sweden and Finland, to join NATO after the firm resistance of six weeks. The country has lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden’s bid to join on Tuesday after the long hours of talks before a NATO summit in Madrid. The aim was to present a united front by adding the non-aligned Sweden and Finland against Russian efforts of undermining NATO.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was convinced to lift the veto on certain terms and conditions. Ankara demanded that both the Nordic countries need to stop Kurdish armed group support and lift their bans on the sales of some arms to Turkey. The Turkish president has clearly warned the NATO member states of results if, in case, the demands would not be met by Sweden and Finland.
Turkey opposed Sweden and Finland’s NATO bid in the early days because Sweden had been harboring PKK (a terrorist organization) members. In this conflicting situation between PKK and Turkey, millions of people have died in operations conducted by the Turkish state. But now Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General, said that the deal involved Sweden and Finland need to amend their laws against PKK to crack down on its activities.
On this day, Sweden and Finland will be formally invited to join the alliance by NATO leaders. The announcement of this agreement is going to bring the biggest shift in European security as both of these Nordic countries will no longer be neutral.
