Turkish "amen"

Turkish "amen"

Probably the most important part of the meeting was the agreement between Turkey, Finland and Sweden, which abolishes the NATO blockade of the Scandinavian countries, reports Klix.ba.

Although at the NATO summit in Madrid, the members of the military-political alliance adopted a new Strategic Concept, which should determine the alliance's strategy for the next 10 years and action in several parts of the world, the public, as well as numerous officials, mostly focused on the agreement between Turkey and the Scandinavian countries which is rated as historical.

Despite the war in Ukraine, which was inevitably the topic of the two-day session, Recep Tayyip Erdogan once again managed to steal the show.

The entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO, according to the rules of the alliance, should be approved by the parliaments of all members, and the countries themselves should have received an official invitation to join at the NATO summit.

Nevertheless, both Stoltenberg and everyone else knew that the entire procedures are futile if they somehow fail to secure Turkey's "amen" to the entry of these countries. After the session, which lasted more than four hours, the delegations of Sweden, Finland, Turkey and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg left the hall and announced that the agreement had been reached, which caused the enthusiasm of all those present in the hall, as well as the officials of other NATO countries.

"Turkey got what it wanted, including full cooperation in the fight against terrorist groups," Erdogan explained briefly. In addition to numerous influential countries within the NATO alliance, including the largest power - the United States of America, Turkey has once again shown itself to be an extremely serious player in terms of foreign policy and probably a country that at this moment, along with the United States of America, can be rated as the most important leverage of NATO.

It is also recalled that, unlike other NATO and EU countries, Turkey refused to impose sanctions on Russia. Despite the pressures that are still present today, Turkey has remained consistent with its position and has not imposed sanctions on Russia to this day, which has enabled it to have an extremely comfortable intermediary position in which it offers itself almost daily to Kyiv and Moscow for negotiations on ending the war, but where they also cooperate on a daily basis with one and the other side militarily or economically.

Turkey maintained a similar position in the context of the negotiations between the Scandinavian countries and the NATO alliance. Although it was expected that, following Euro-Atlantic unity, the member states would agree to the membership of Sweden and Finland without question, the position of the official Ankara regarding the entry of these countries was completely clear - entry into NATO will be approved if Turkey's conditions are met.

When it comes to the demands that Turkey sent to Sweden and Finland, and to which they agreed, the part of the document that is probably the most important concerns the extradition of members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), YPG forces and members of the FETO movement, which are organizations defined in Turkey as a threat to national security.

Perhaps for the first time, Turkey managed to force NATO to include the PKK in one of its official documents, as well as organizations such as FETO and the YPG, thus exerting even stronger pressure when it comes to solving internal political issues.

What should not be forgotten is the fact that just a few days after the official request of Sweden and Finland to join NATO, Turkey announced that the Turkish army is preparing for a new military operation in the north of Syria, which aims to establish a security zone 30 kilometers deep along the border.

Taking into account the previous policy of the Scandinavian countries, as well as the announcements that Sweden and Finland will not extradite those citizens who are found to have no connection with terrorist activities, the question is how applicable the agreement between Finland, Sweden and Turkey will be in practice.

In any case, Erdogan's foreign policy balancing, at least from this perspective, of the right moves, once again brought Turkey a comfortable position in which Ankara "got everything", and still has the possibility to influence NATO's policy in a certain way and significantly determines the course of action based on its own interests.

Of course, Erdogan's chess moves will have a certain impact on Turkey's internal politics and preparations for the elections that will be held in 2023. Time will tell whether all this will be enough to consolidate the position ahead of the elections and exert additional influence on the voters.