> “We are raising this issue as a matter of national security for Turkey,” Ibrahim Kalin says. “Of course we want to have a discussion, a negotiation with Swedish counterparts”
This whole thing is about Sweden rather than Finland. Finland just happened to be bunched up with Sweden.
I’m Finnish and I was aware of this from the get go, and also assumed there would be some discussions between Sweden and Turkey. I think the panic is mostly from the uninformed.
Turkey is looking to do a deal – maybe for the F-35, maybe for something else.
Seems as they need to have a meeting back doors and decide on a united front on their stances, cause ‘not positive’ to ‘not closing door’ isn’t exactly coherent
All part of the course. Several discussions to be had and all that
just wait for Orban.
getting tired of Erdogan. instead of working together and forming true alliances, his strategy is always to extort at any opportunity. not how friendships are formed. will come back to bite Turkey in the ass some day.
nice turkey, good chance for you to blackmail NATO into giving you some free equipment for your outdated airforce
The Turkish Lira is already suffering from this debacle.
That’s hardly exclusive. If they were shutting the door they would have said no. The language was clearly chosen deliberately.
Basically Turkey wants Sweden to stop their support for specific groups. That’s it.
What Turkey will ask of Sweden is that they stop cozying up to groups related to the PKK.
Now, Sweden’s support for the Syrian based YPG/SDF is quite well known and one might argue that this has nothing to do with PKK’s activities in and against Turkey. However it has been established that the YPG/SDF are offshoots or at the very least connected to the PKK. Also by US DoD. The group’s leader(Known as Sahin Cilo among other names) is confirmed to be an ex-PKK militant. I think even people who are the most critical of Turkey can understand why the Turkish government feels some apprehension towards letting a new member into NATO who is quite literally funding groups that are in conflict with Turkey.
It seems as good of an opportunity as ever for Turkey to push this issue now. Now this will be about how much NATO pressure Turkey can whitstand to not veto VERSUS how much Sweden wants to get into NATO and what they’re willing to concede.
“Asked whether Turkey risked being too transactional at a time of war, and when Finnish and Swedish public opinion favours NATO membership, he said: “One hundred percent of our population is very upset with the PKK and FETO (Gulenist) presence in Europe.”
“If they (Finland and Sweden) have a public concerned about their own national security, we have a public that is equally concerned about our own security,” he said. “We have to see this from a mutual point of view.”
Kalin said Russia’s sharp criticism of Finland and Sweden over their plans was not a factor in Turkey’s position.”
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turkey should have just vetoed swedens bid. who is to say pkk wont come up with a new 3letters org next year and sweden will start funding that new definitely not pkk thing
I already didn’t like the Gulen group (read into them once years ago, only remember that I’m not a fan), but have no idea about this PKK group. Is this one if the controversial headlines we see about Sweden being *too* liberal in what it allows there?
12 comments
> “We are raising this issue as a matter of national security for Turkey,” Ibrahim Kalin says. “Of course we want to have a discussion, a negotiation with Swedish counterparts”
This whole thing is about Sweden rather than Finland. Finland just happened to be bunched up with Sweden.
I’m Finnish and I was aware of this from the get go, and also assumed there would be some discussions between Sweden and Turkey. I think the panic is mostly from the uninformed.
Turkey is looking to do a deal – maybe for the F-35, maybe for something else.
Seems as they need to have a meeting back doors and decide on a united front on their stances, cause ‘not positive’ to ‘not closing door’ isn’t exactly coherent
All part of the course. Several discussions to be had and all that
just wait for Orban.
getting tired of Erdogan. instead of working together and forming true alliances, his strategy is always to extort at any opportunity. not how friendships are formed. will come back to bite Turkey in the ass some day.
nice turkey, good chance for you to blackmail NATO into giving you some free equipment for your outdated airforce
The Turkish Lira is already suffering from this debacle.
That’s hardly exclusive. If they were shutting the door they would have said no. The language was clearly chosen deliberately.
Basically Turkey wants Sweden to stop their support for specific groups. That’s it.
What Turkey will ask of Sweden is that they stop cozying up to groups related to the PKK.
Now, Sweden’s support for the Syrian based YPG/SDF is quite well known and one might argue that this has nothing to do with PKK’s activities in and against Turkey. However it has been established that the YPG/SDF are offshoots or at the very least connected to the PKK. Also by US DoD. The group’s leader(Known as Sahin Cilo among other names) is confirmed to be an ex-PKK militant. I think even people who are the most critical of Turkey can understand why the Turkish government feels some apprehension towards letting a new member into NATO who is quite literally funding groups that are in conflict with Turkey.
It seems as good of an opportunity as ever for Turkey to push this issue now. Now this will be about how much NATO pressure Turkey can whitstand to not veto VERSUS how much Sweden wants to get into NATO and what they’re willing to concede.
“Asked whether Turkey risked being too transactional at a time of war, and when Finnish and Swedish public opinion favours NATO membership, he said: “One hundred percent of our population is very upset with the PKK and FETO (Gulenist) presence in Europe.”
“If they (Finland and Sweden) have a public concerned about their own national security, we have a public that is equally concerned about our own security,” he said. “We have to see this from a mutual point of view.”
Kalin said Russia’s sharp criticism of Finland and Sweden over their plans was not a factor in Turkey’s position.”
​
turkey should have just vetoed swedens bid. who is to say pkk wont come up with a new 3letters org next year and sweden will start funding that new definitely not pkk thing
I already didn’t like the Gulen group (read into them once years ago, only remember that I’m not a fan), but have no idea about this PKK group. Is this one if the controversial headlines we see about Sweden being *too* liberal in what it allows there?