by Burak Akinci
ANKARA, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's objection to the bids by Sweden and Finland to join the NATO stems from its security concerns which should be addressed before the two Nordic states can be allowed into the military alliance, Turkish experts said.
On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey, as a NATO member, does not favor the two Nordic states' NATO memberships in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Russia, which launched a special military operation in Ukraine in late February, has long warned Sweden and Finland against joining the NATO. Turkey, which has good relations with both Moscow and Kiev, has been trying to mediate a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Erdogan accused both Sweden and Finland of harboring "terrorist organizations," referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), outlawed by Turkey as a terrorist group for rebelling against the government in the past three decades, and the movement led by Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Turkish cleric accused by Ankara of masterminding the 2016 coup to overthrow Erdogan's rule.
Turkey's Justice Ministry complained that Sweden and Finland have rejected or dismissed Turkey's requests for the extradition of 33 suspects linked to the PKK and Gulen movement in the past five years.
On Monday, Erdogan restated his opposition to the NATO's Nordic expansion, after Stockholm and Helsinki announced their decisions to join the military bloc.
Erdogan told reporters in the capital Ankara that the two Scandinavian nations need not send delegations to convince Turkey about their NATO bids, slamming them for failing to take a clear stance against terrorism.
Sweden earlier announced that it would send a diplomatic delegation to Ankara in the coming days to discuss the country's bid to join the NATO, as well as Turkey's concerns.
Oguz Celikkol, a former Turkish ambassador and renowned commentator, warned that Turkey may use its veto power within the NATO for the first time to block the bids by Finland and Sweden if Ankara's security concerns are not taken care of.
"Sweden and Finland's NATO membership can not be materialized unless they cut all their ties to PKK and its terrorist affiliates," Celikkol said in a TV interview.
The NATO makes all its decisions by consensus, meaning that each of the 30 member countries has the veto power over who can join.
Still, analysts said Erdogan may soften his stance after ongoing negotiations with the United States and other allies to get some security guarantees.
"Can a middle way be found in this situation, I believe it can," Haldun Yalcinkaya, a professor of international relations at the Ankara-based TOBB University of Economics and Technology, told Xinhua.
Yalcinkaya believed that Turkey, which has the second largest military in the NATO, has supported the alliance's expansion since it became a member in 1952 and would continue to do so.
"President Erdogan's remarks on those two countries were in fact constructive. He laid out his country's arguments and concerns, and let the door open for the two Nordic states' NATO memberships," he said.
"Security comes with a cost, meaning that if Sweden and Finland eventually become members of NATO, they cannot anymore support organizations that can in any way harm another ally's security, and in this case Turkey," he explained.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday that his country is not threatening anyone or seeking leverage but speaking out especially about Sweden's support for the PKK.
Ozgur Eksi, editor-in-chief of TurDef magazine, said Turkey has faced Sweden's criticism of human rights abuse in the fight against the PKK rebellion in the past three decades, and now it's Sweden's payback time.
"Sweden has to show that it will be Turkey's ally inside the NATO," Eksi told Xinhua in an interview.
Sweden has designated the PKK as a terrorist organization, "but they don't act by it," he noted.
Turkey also demands an end to the Finnish and Swedish arms export bans imposed following Turkey's military incursion into northern Syria to fight the People's Protection Units (YPG), the PKK's Syrian arm, in 2019.
Nevertheless, Eksi voiced optimism that Turkey would eventually lift its objection to the NATO bids by Sweden and Finland once it obtains positive pledges or actions to deal with its "legitimate concerns." ■
