Mavi Boncuk |
Turkey made a surprise
pledge to drop its opposition to Sweden joining NATO, paving the way for the
Nordic country to become a member of the Western military alliance.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Turkey had agreed to support Sweden’s NATO bid – by putting the issue to a vote in Parliament -- in return for deeper cooperation on security issues and a promise from Sweden to revive Turkey’s quest for EU membership.
The agreement, which Stoltenberg heralded after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, also says the two countries will step up trade and investment with each other.
Hungary, the only other NATO holdout on Sweden, is expected to drop its opposition, too. Hungary’s foreign minister said Tuesday that his country’s ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership was now just a “technical matter.”
Erdogan has been uncharacteristically quiet since the agreement was publicized, declining to comment on the reasons for his apparent change of heart.
It remains to be seen how quickly the issue will be taken up by Turkey’s Parliament.
Here are key factors, and possible incentives, that Turkey is considering as it weighs Sweden’s entry into NATO
Erdogan's opposition to Swedish membership in NATO had focused heavily on his belief that the Nordic country has been too lenient toward elements of the Turkish and Kurdish diasporas that Turkey views as security threats — namely, people associated with militant Kurdish groups and others connected to a 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan.
An agreement signed between Turkey, Sweden and Finland last year set out to tackle some of these concerns, and Sweden recently tightened its anti-terrorism laws, making support for an extremist organization punishable by up to eight years’ imprisonment.
Sweden says it has cracked down on the activities of people connected to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a 39-year insurgency in Turkey. And under the agreement outlined Monday, Sweden said it would also work against the Syrian wing of the PKK, known as the YPG.