On June 28, local time, after negotiations between the heads of governments of Turkey, Sweden and Finland and NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg, Turkey withdrew its veto of Sweden and Finland. Resolution to enter NATO, agreeing to support Sweden and Finland in joining NATO.
has been going around in circles for nearly a month and a half. Why did Türkiye change its attitude and relent?
Let’s briefly review the incident:
Sweden and Finland in May The application for membership in NATO was formally submitted on the 18th. According to regulations, NATO can only admit new members with the "unanimous consent" of 30 member states.
No one expected that when Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO, the biggest reaction was not Russia, but Turkey, a member of NATO.
The "sophisticated" Turkish government seized the right moment, stood up and strongly opposed, and set out a series of conditions: Sweden and Finland must stop attacking the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the Syrian Kurdish armed "People's Protection Units" and the Syrian Kurdish armed forces when seeking to join NATO. " Gulen movement " support, and lifting restrictions on Turkey's export of defense equipment, etc.
In order to make Turkey change its mind, Sweden and Finland sent delegations to hold consultations with Turkish officials in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, but made little progress.
Turkish President Erdogan once again made a strong statement on June 15: As long as Sweden and Finland do not take specific measures to combat terrorism, Turkey’s position will not change.
Despite the efforts of NATO and others to mediate, the three countries have their own considerations and have never been able to reach an agreement. The Secretary-General of NATO also said that he could not give a time limit for Finnry to join NATO. The process of Finland and Sweden joining NATO seems to have stalled...
The critical moment has come. On June 28, the first day of the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, at the negotiating table, Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu, Finnish Foreign Minister Haavisto and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde finally signed a trilateral memorandum. . This memorandum broke the bottleneck and paved the way for Fenry to join NATO.
According to the document released on the NATO website, the most eye-catching contents of the memorandum include: As future NATO allies, Sweden and Finland will fully support Turkey’s fight against terrorism, recognize the PKK as a banned terrorist organization, and commit to stopping and investigating Kurdish workers. Any fundraising and recruitment activities of the party and related organizations and individuals will not support the "Gulen Movement" and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party and its affiliated armed organization "People's Protection Units". In addition, Türkiye, Finland and Sweden confirmed the lifting of the arms embargo among the three parties.
Sweden and Finland finally relented and got what they wanted, while Turkey "saw the clouds and saw the moonlight", while the Kurds eventually became the "victims" of this diplomatic game.
Source | Yangcheng Evening News·Yangcheng School
Editor | Leng Shuang
