I wonder what had deal had to be made for him to say this. Also grain of salt till ink is dry.
I’ve seen speculation that Turkey will get F-16s in return.
Looking forward to seeing Orban cornered.
They’ve had F-16s for years, producing most of them domestically (under license). Maybe some upgrades?
Turkey’s been developing their own “5th gen” fighter, and they do have a pretty decent domestic military industrial base, but they got barred from purchasing the F-35 in 2019 when they bought an S-400 system from Russia - I wonder if he wants those. It’d need some US congressional cooperation to make happen, though.
As a swede I am on the fence on wether Sweden should join NATO in the first place, but at least we’re not out for the stupidest fucking reason anymore.
What are your counter points? Other than not wanting to be a staging ground for a potential NATO/Russian war?
I think most people who have switched sides, who were originally for/split, would today argue that it’s unlikely that Russia would stage another war in the coming years. Looking at how poorly they are performing in Ukraine.
So getting into NATO with the possibility that Erdogan’s demands will have an actual effect on the Swedish laws has not been deemed worth it right now.
I also doubt anybody reasonable would consider some of his demands to be achievable, Turkey in EU today?
Sweden currently would be in a perfect selfish situation.
Norway and Finland are in. So sweden cannot be attacked by russia without NATO helping them unless russia only attacks islands. But Sweden has free choice to participate or ignore NATO being attacked.
Now Sweden has to help NATO wherever they are being attacked.
Per the NYT, here’s what Sweden and NATO would do in return:
In return, Sweden and Turkey would continue to work bilaterally against terrorism, Sweden would help reinvigorate Turkey’s application to enter the European Union, and NATO would establish a new “special coordinator for counterterrorism,” he said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/10/world/europe/erdogan-turkey-sweden-nato.html
Sweden will help them apply, but they’ve got to do all the prerequisite economic work themselves.
Not to mention, the governmental policy and structure work themselves. And the governmental structure and policy changes made by Erdogan are more or less what the EU wants fixed (e.g. erosion of judicial independence and rule of law; imprisonment of political opponents; strong democratic process that operates without internal interference). Sweden will abide by the letter of the agreement, as they should: they’ll help Turkey improve their EU bid. It’s just that “improve” absolutely encompasses moving that accession bid from “lol no” to “pretty goddamn unlikely but technically not impossible”.
Erdogan will probably be sore about that later, but he’s really only got himself to blame. If you wanna be in a club that has a rule where you’ve got to be a full and thriving democracy, it’s frankly stupid to be surprised when they won’t let you in because you’ve stopped being a full and thriving democracy. And the club members are under no obligation whatsoever to help you pretend that you are a full and thriving democracy when you clearly aren’t.
Turkey had previously spent months blocking Sweden’s application, accusing it of hosting Kurdish militants.
Man, fuck Turkey
Horribel. Sweden do not need NATO for peace , NATO needs Sweden for war.
