How Turkey spoiled NATO’s historic moment with Finland, Sweden

When Finland and Sweden gestured they were allowing of making the major decision joining NATO, the alliance anticipated a tough response from Moscow, not from one of its own. read more

Yet at a gathering of NATO foreign ministers with their Finnish and Swedish counterparts on Saturday to celebrate the biggest shift in European security in decades, Turkey’s party darkened the mood.
A day before Turkey’s chairman, Tayyip Erdogan, had shocked fellow NATO members by saying he couldn’t support class for either Finland or Sweden.

Cavusoglu not only set conditions for Turkey accepting the class flings but raised his voice at Sweden’s Ann Linde in what three NATO diplomats said was an” disturbing” break in protocol.

“For us it was a major moment and yet Cavusoglu said he was bothered at Linde’s ‘feminist policy’, bringing so important drama, “another NATO diplomat said, describing a veritably tense atmosphere in the German foreign ministry in Berlin, in which numerous abettors decided for silence to calm the situation.
“We were trying to understand what our Turkish coworker wanted-you know, really wanted,” said the diplomat, who like others spoke on condition of obscurity because of the perceptivity of the issue.”It was disturbing.”

Ankara’s main demands are for the Nordic countries to halt support for Kurdish militant groups present on their home, and to lift their bans on some deals of arms to Turkey.

A Turkish politic source said Cavusoglu had outlined Turkey’s station hypercritically, rejecting what he said was an allegation from Linde that its opposition was due to Sweden’s feminist foreign policy.

“Her commentary aren’t helping Sweden’s NATO shot, while the statements coming from Finland are precisely drafted. “the source said. Sweden’s foreign ministry didn’t incontinently respond to a request for comment after business hours.

Prodded on by Russia’s irruption of Ukraine, both countries applied to join NATO on Wednesday. read further

Russia, which says the trouble posed by NATO expansion was a major reason it transferred colors into Ukraine, has played it cool.

While Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Finland and Sweden joining was a” grave mistake”with”far- reaching consequences”, President Vladimir Putin said on May 16 their flings to join NATO posed no direct trouble to Russia.