14.05.2022, Moscow.
On May 13, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he would reconsider whether to accept Scandinavian countries into NATO.
“Scandinavian countries have a habit of being ‘hospitable’ to terrorists, of letting them into parliament. Therefore, we cannot look positively on this yet,” Erdogan said, commenting on the situation with Sweden’s and Finland’s desire to join NATO.
The USA and its allies in Europe are extremely interested in adding the two Scandinavian countries to the Alliance, but Erdoğan quite expectedly decided to sell his refusal to veto their joining NATO at a higher price.
The message in his statement was to bargain with Turkey. Erdoğan does not want to miss the opportunity to get something in such a politically tense situation.
And the signal was heard, a few hours later White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the USA was working with Turkey on its objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO. There is broad support in the alliance for those countries’ plans, she said.
What does Turkey want from the USA and NATO in exchange? The list of wishes is fairly stable: to allow Turkey to deal with the Kurds in the way it wants; to supply the weapons Ankara has asked for; to unblock the supply of components for the Turkish military industry, etc.
But Erdoğan now seems to have a more substantial condition for the West, which he will work through at every opportunity. The West has written off the Turkish president and is waging on the leader of the opposition in the upcoming elections. So there is something to bargain about.
Translated from https://t.me/shotday/275
