Russian military invasion of Ukraine prompted the governments of Finland and Sweden to declare their will to join NATO, thereby breaking the principle of neutrality in their foreign policies, which both countries had followed for over a hundred years. However, Turkey opposed the Finnish and Swedish candidacies, which significantly hampered the process of enlargement of the North Atlantic Alliance.
KBN Analysis No. 17 (112) / 2022
7 November 2022
Russian military invasion of Ukraine prompted the governments of Finland and Sweden to declare their will to join NATO, thereby breaking the principle of neutrality in their foreign policies, which both countries had followed for over a hundred years. However, Turkey opposed the Finnish and Swedish candidacies, which significantly hampered the process of enlargement of the North Atlantic Alliance. Despite the signing of a trilateral memorandum at the NATO summit in Madrid, the authorities in Ankara have continued to make the ratification of Finland and Sweden’s accession protocols dependent on the fulfilment of several conditions. Turkish demands included the ban on activities of Kurdish organisations in Finland and Sweden, and the lifting of the embargo on arms exports to Turkey. Discourse analysis of public statements of the most prominent Turkish politicians reveals that the NATO enlargement issue has been instrumentally used by Turkey to achieve certain goals in its domestic and foreign policies.
In the photo: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan meets with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö in September 2022
Photo credit: Twitter