The American fighter jets F-16 are often mentioned as decisive in attracting Turkey to release its veto against a Swedish NATO membership. But will they be enough? Since the carousel surrounding Swedish NATO membership began more than a year ago, there has been a piece of the puzzle lurking in the shadows: the American F-16 fighter jets. It has sounded: “If the US gives Turkey the F-16, it will be fixed”, “the US will solve the NATO issue with the F-16”, and so on. It is undoubtedly true that Turkey yearns for the American fighter planes, but the tours around the American wings began before the Swedish NATO process and have been the subject of several negotiations. Most likely, the Nato knot is not quite so simple or one-track to solve. It is simply about the strait But what are the other things that Turkey has put on the negotiating table? We know that Turkey wants Sweden, preferably followed by other NATO countries, to take an even stronger position against the Kurdish PKK than they have already done. The issue of the status of Cyprus – especially the northern parts controlled by Turkey – is constantly high on the Turkish agenda. Not to mention the maritime borders with Greece. There is little to chew on. And this week, the Al Monitor news network released the revelation that there is one more thing on the negotiating table. It is simply about the strait, “the straits”, which runs through Turkey. The Dardanelles, the waterway between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and the Bosphorus, the strait that connects the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Both have played central roles in wars throughout history. The Bosphorus has also received extra focus since the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, as it has been crucial for both grain shipping and military cargo that wants to be able to pass from the Black Sea. The rules around the strait are determined according to the Montreux Convention, which was signed in 1936. Since then, the waterways are sometimes called the strait and sometimes the Turkish strait in official documents. Now Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants the waterways to start consistently being called the Turkish Straits in NATO’s actions and strategies. As part of taking Turkey back to the Ottoman heyday and gaining more control over the transits. It is no small thing he desires from his melting pot of discontent. The future will tell what will be decisive.
t4-general