As his country formalized its historic decision to join NATO, Swedish Foreign Minister Peter Hultqvist said on Monday that a Swedish delegation would visit Ankara very soon to try to resolve the dispute with Turkey. The Turkish president’s response was scathing: “Are they going to come and convince us? They don’t get tired! ”.
“How are we going to trust them? Sweden is the breeding ground for terrorist organizations”, he added. Erdogan accuses Finland and Sweden of benevolence towards his nemesis, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – qualified as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States – and has been hammering since Friday that he will block the accession of the two countries to NATO, of which Turkey has been a member since 1952.
But Ankara’s apparent intransigence could be just a facade, according to Foreign Policy. The American magazine spoke to “several European officials” who see in Erdogan’s posturing a “rough maneuver” and that “expect Turkey to eventually support Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, after diplomatic negotiations”.
For Swedish TV channel SVT Erdogan’s statements inevitably go “increase the pressure on Sweden and Finland to make concessions”. The world shares this analysis while questioning Ankara’s demands.
Turkish “want to be listened to. Or rather, they want to take advantage of the situation to roll out a list of historical grievances”writes the Spanish daily. “Because if they used multiple formulas to express their hostility towards Sweden and Finland, without opposing a definitive ‘no’ […], they did not explain exactly what they wanted in exchange for their green light. Since Saturday, they have been discussing several requests, without focusing on any”.