The Kurds in Finland were not surprised by Turkey’s demands on Finland and Sweden when they decided to apply for NATO. Toni Alaranta, a senior researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute, believes that the issue of Turkey will remain relevant during NATO membership.
1.6. 11:30 • Updated June 1.6. 11:39
The Kurds living in Finland have rejoiced in at least one thing in recent days: the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğanin Due to the NATO conditions imposed on Finland and Sweden, the situation of the Kurds has come up for discussion in Finland, Sweden and elsewhere in Europe.
Turkey’s demands on the Kurds have hampered Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO.
On Tuesday morning, Minister of Defense Antti Kaikkonen (center) hoped that the nodes between Finland and Turkey could be resolved by the end of June.
– In order for the matter to be resolved, it is certainly worth taking Turkey’s security concerns seriously. Discussions have begun and will continue in the coming weeks, said Kaikkonen.
The Kurds are a nation with their own language and live mainly in the territory of four states in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. There are about 16,000 Kurds living in Finland. Finland and Sweden have supported the Kurds alongside the United States.
– If there is anything positive about this crisis, it is that there is talk of how much the Kurds are being persecuted in Turkey. And how big a problem Turkey is in the Middle East, the chairman of the Kurdish League Welat Nehri says.
The Kurds have been persecuted for hundreds of years. They were promised their own autonomous state after the First World War, but it never materialized.
Turks hard to find to criticize Erdoğan
also tried to get Turkish people interviewed for this story, but several refused.
Nehri doesn’t wonder why. According to him, there are two reasons for this. The broader reason is that Turkish society is not interested in Kurdish rights, according to Nehr, but in Turkey everything has been taught that everyone is Turkish.
– One language, one flag, one nation policy has been in power in Turkey for a hundred years. If you are not in that tray, you will not be welcomed. Other opinions are seen as a threat to Turkish society, Nehri says.
In addition, in recent years in particular, Turkey has sought to discourage opposition groups and anyone who has in any way criticized President Erdoğan’s administration or government actions. According to Nehr, also in Finland.
– Wherever you go to criticize, you get into trouble, Nehri says.
According to Nehr, there are supporters of President Erdoğan in Finland, but those Finns with a Turkish background who would like to question Erdoğan’s demands on Finland and Sweden in a NATO application may not even dare to do so in Finland.
– Especially if they travel to Turkey or have family members in Turkey. They do not dare to criticize even here in Finland, because they may get into trouble. Western people have been arrested in Turkey for criticizing Erdoğan, Nehri says.
– For example, I cannot travel to Turkey when I tell so openly about Turkey’s internal problems, Nehri says.
The chairman of the Kurdish League, Nehri, himself is from East Kurdistan, the Kurdish region of present-day Iran, but he moved to Finland as a political refugee and has lived in Finland for a long time.
UPI’s researcher confirms the views
Senior researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Toni Alaranta it is not surprising that the Turks, who do not support Erdoğan, do not want to publicly criticize Turkish President Erdoğan in Finland either.
– Surely they have in mind that if it somehow retaliates against relatives in Turkey, Alaranta says.
Alaranta says that the Kurdish experience of the rise of the Kurdish question with Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO application to the center of world politics is also true.
– Now a lot of things are coming to the fore that would not otherwise be widely discussed in public in Finland if this were not the case: such as the position of the Kurds in Turkey and the wider Middle East, the PKK and the Kurds’ relationship with the PKK, Alaranta says.
The PKK is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in the Kurdish Autonomous Region, which has pushed for self-government in the region and has fought on several occasions against the Turkish regime for the cause.
According to Alaranta, Finland’s foreign policy debate is usually only related to the United States and Russia, and little to Finland’s position in the EU.
– There is usually nothing to wonder about in the Middle East. Some small districts follow Kurdish issues. But they are by no means widely talked about, Alaranta says.
The Kurds in Finland do not marvel at the turbulent Turkey
Now the Kurds are at the center, because Turkey has lifted them into it.
Turkey has demanded that Finland and Sweden stop supporting the Kurds in particular, following the submission of their NATO applications: returning 33 Turkish terrorists to Turkey, ending Kurdish support for northern Syria and banning arms exports to Turkey. Finland and Sweden imposed an arms embargo in 2019 when Turkey occupied the Kurdish areas of Rojava in Syria.
The demands became apparent when Finland and Sweden had already submitted their NATO applications. Back in April, Turkey’s message to Finland was that Turkey would support Finland in its NATO application.
Although Finland has been partly surprised by Turkey’s squeaky policy in connection with Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO application, it has not surprised the Finnish Kurds.
– Erdoğan makes politics. Take advantage of the situation, says Nehri, chairman of the Kurdish League.
According to Nehr, Erdoğan’s use is partly explained by Turkey’s internal economic worries and the low popularity of Erdoğan. The election is coming. According to Nehr, Erdoğan wants to turn his citizens’ attention from internal problems to foreign policy. First the war in Ukraine and now the NATO membership of Finland and Sweden have been a kind of relief for the Turkish leadership, Nehri says.
But most of all, according to Nehr, Erdoğan seeks to manipulate the United States at the expense of Finland and Sweden.
– Erdoğan is trying to get a ban on arms imports from the United States to Turkey, Nehri says.
Finland and Sweden are thus in the middle of the hottest core of world politics, in small pieces.
Alaranta, a senior researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute, agrees.
– Finland and Sweden are small factors here. What Finland and Sweden do or do not do is quite marginal. The goal is the United States, Alaranta says.
“If Finland and Sweden agree to Erdogan’s demands, Isis will be strengthened”
Another Kurdish interviewed by , Alan Salehzadeh is not surprised by President Erdoğan’s demands regarding the Kurds. Salehzadeh is an expert, teacher and former researcher at the National Defense College in the Middle East and North Africa. He is an Iranian Kurdish, a political refugee who came to Finland in 1998. He has also worked for the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
According to Salehzadeh, Erdoğan marks everyone who disagrees as terrorists, be they Kurds, feminists or equality defenders. According to Salehzadeh, rhetoric must not be intimidated.
– The concept of a terrorist is different in the Middle East. That means anyone who disagrees with the government, Salehzadih says.
According to Salehzad, Erdoğan’s demands must not be accepted. Nehri agrees.
According to Nehr, one should look deeper than Erdoğan’s demands.
– Here, Erdoğan now accuses Finland and Sweden of supporting terrorism, but if he looks deeper into the surface, it is Turkey that has been supporting terrorist groups, Nehri says.
According to Nehr, if Finland and Sweden agree to Erdoğan’s demands, it will strengthen the terrorist organization Isisi. This is because the Kurds are fighting Isis and maintaining, among other things, the al-Hol camp where members of Isis are being held.
– If support for the camps and the Kurds were to end, there would be a risk that those in the camp would be released and rejoin the ranks of Isis. That is, if one agrees to Erdoğan’s demands, Isis will be strengthened, Nehri says.
According to the Alaranta Institute of Foreign Policy, this is possible. According to Alaranta, Kurdish forces need financial resources and political sympathy from the West so that they can maintain Isis camps, which makes no sense to run for longer, Alaranta recalls.
– Western countries have been very reluctant to receive these people from camps. The Kurds have then had to maintain them, Alaranta says.
The situation will continue, in one form or another
According to the Finnish Kurdish Union Nehr, the NATO application by Finland and Sweden has not only highlighted the situation of the Kurds but also highlighted how big a problem Turkey is for NATO and for Europe as a whole.
– 29 other NATO countries are ready to respect the democratically made decision of Finland and Sweden to apply for NATO membership, but Turkey does not, Nehri concludes.
Turkey’s special position is also emphasized by the Alaranta Institute for Foreign Policy. According to him, Turkey and its different interests compared to other NATO countries will continue to be a big challenge in NATO.
– I would say that if we can move forward with honor and Finland and Sweden become members of NATO, this problem with Turkey will remain, Alaranta says.