First discordant voice within NATO: Turkey, a member of the Atlantic Alliance for 70 years, is reluctant to join Finland and Sweden. Its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, estimated on Friday May 13 that this membership would be “ a mistake “. Like the other Member States, Turkey has a right of veto in NATO. Sweden and Finland have planned to discuss the subject with Turkey this Saturday in Berlin, during an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers to which these two countries are invited.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
” We are not in favor of it », « Turkey does not want to make the same mistake twice “: it is with these undiplomatic formulas that Recep Tayyip Erdogan opposed theFinland and Sweden join NATO.
The Turkish President accused these states of being ” guesthouses for terrorist organizations “quoting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the far-left DHKP-C. Tayyip Erdogan drew a parallel with the accession of Greece, which he accused of league NATO behind it against Turkey.
Tensions between Ankara and several European countries, particularly Sweden, over the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the YPG, are recurrent. But Tayyip Erdogan’s clear-cut statement may come as a surprise.
The Turkish President, who considers himself in a position of strength within NATO in recent months thanks to his role as intermediary between Ukraine and Russia, and who seeks to spare the latter, seems to be seizing the opportunity to pressure its Western allies over Kurdish fighters. In 2019, he refused to back a NATO defense plan for the Baltics and Poland until NATO members recognized the YPG as a terrorist group. Ankara had finally reviewed its position without winning.