"We were sold to Erdogan." Turkey is again threatening Sweden and Finland to block the path to NATO. What's happening?
The desire of Sweden and Finland to join NATO has encountered a difficult moral and political dilemma, writes Strana. For the sake of membership in the alliance, both countries will be forced to violate their own laws and principles.
Alexandra Kharchenko
The story of Sweden and Finland joining NATO is far from over, despite the decision of the Madrid summit to invite these two countries to the alliance. Ankara is again threatening Stockholm and Helsinki with blocking NATO membership. This was stated the other day by President Erdogan, and today was repeated by the Foreign Minister. "The real right of veto begins now. They must comply with the signed document, otherwise we will not accept them into NATO," Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said.
We are talking about the agreement signed last week by Turkey with Finland and Sweden on the extradition to Turks from Scandinavian countries of members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and supporters of the preacher and opposition leader Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey has declared "terrorists".
According to Erdogan, the Finns and Swedes promised him that they would hand over "terrorists". He threatened that if this is not done, Turkey will block the entry of the two countries into NATO. And it has such an opportunity, since the decision to join has yet to be ratified by the parliaments of all the member countries of the alliance, including the Turkish one.
The Scandinavian countries face a complex moral and political dilemma. On the one hand, they have already set a course for NATO. On the other hand, for the sake of NATO, they will have to violate their own laws, the principles of democracy and respect for human rights, based on which they previously refused to extradite Kurds and Gulenists to Turkey. Moreover, their fate after extradition can be tragic – at best a long prison term, at worst murder. How the situation can develop is analyzed by the "Country".
"There must be very good reasons for extradition"
The deal of Sweden and Finland with Turkey on the Kurds, of course, caused a wave of indignation among human rights activists and thousands of representatives of the Kurdish community, because, they say, it at least contradicts the norms of a democratic society and violates human rights.
In response, the Swedish and Finnish governments hastened to assure that the agreement allegedly would not lead to extradition to Turkey without due process of law.
"I know that there are people who are concerned that we are going to start hunting people and extraditing them. And I think it's important to say that we always follow Swedish laws and international conventions, and we will never extradite Swedish citizens," Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson urged public TV channel SVT.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto assures that the memorandum with Turkey does not specify names.
"In case of extradition, we will adhere to our own legislation and international agreements. Ultimately, extradition is a legal discretion that politicians have no right to influence," Niinisto vaguely commented.
He claims that he did not discuss with the Turkish side any issues of expelling any people from Finland. "In Madrid, we did not discuss any individuals and no lists," he said.
In an interview with the Yle TV channel, the minister assured that the Kurds in Finland are allegedly not in danger. "I understand that the Kurds in Finland and Sweden are concerned. But when it comes to extradition, the reason for it must be a terrorist crime, also proven in Finland. In addition, Finland has committed itself not to extradite people who are waiting for torture or execution. There must be very good reasons for extradition," Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto added.
It should be noted that earlier, according to the same procedures and laws that the Finnish and Swedish authorities are now talking about, the Scandinavian countries refused to extradite Kurds and Gulenists to the Turks, which, in fact, was the reason for the threat of a veto on joining NATO from Erdogan. And he promised to lift this veto only after, according to him, Finland and Sweden changed their attitude to the issue of extradition.
And now Turkey is quite clearly talking about the agreement reached to extradite several dozen Kurds and opposition activists from Sweden and Finland. Therefore, in Sweden and Finland themselves, some are sure that the government is lying.
The Swedish left party claims that joining an alliance with Turkey on the issue of NATO could have serious negative consequences. "The sale of us to Erdogan went quickly," said Ulla Andersson, a former Left Party spokeswoman for economic policy.
The co-chair of the Green Party, Marta Stenevi, called the events related to the possible extradition of Kurds to Turkey "very disturbing". And Foreign Minister Anne Linda was threatened with a vote of no confidence.
"They will decide for us who to deport and what to print in the newspapers"
A member of the Riksdag (parliament) of Sweden and leader of the Left Party, a descendant of Iranian refugees, Nushi Dadgostar believes that the Swedish government should explain exactly what it agreed to. "First of all, the government should convene the leaders of the parties and explain what they agreed on. Judging by media reports, it seems that a foreign power now has to decide for us who should be deported and what should be published in Swedish newspapers. We warned in advance about the danger of transferring Swedish security policy into the hands of despot Erdogan. But the government denied that this would happen. Now we need to put the cards on the table. Should Sweden arm Turkey in its aggressive war against Syria? Which of the critics of the Erdogan regime should be deported?" – the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet quotes her.
Another member of the Swedish parliament, former Kurdish partisan Amine Kakabave, is deeply disappointed with the deal between Sweden and Turkey and directly calls it a betrayal of the Kurds, stating that Sweden "bowed to a tyrant." "This is a betrayal on the part of the Swedish government, NATO countries and Stoltenberg, who are deceiving an entire group that has liberated itself and the whole world from ISIS*. Stoltenberg himself feels warm and safe. He doesn't know how the rest of us saved our lives, escaping from imprisonment and executions," Kakabave said.
At the same time, the Kurdish activist believes that Sweden will never be able to legally extradite people who have fled persecution and who face imprisonment in Turkey.
"In Sweden, opinions about joining are actually divided, the split has worsened against the background of agreements on the Kurds with Turkey. Part of society considers this too high a price and even a betrayal, because people who have long joined Swedish society, legalized here and settled down, can be sent to certain death. And this is despite the fact that previously the ruling Social Democrats supported the activists of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Some believe that the United States is behind the agreements with Turkey, which wants to use Erdogan in the fight against Putin, and that this is the true reason for Stockholm's concessions. At the same time, there is a possibility that real expulsions will begin. And this threatens to shake the stability in Swedish society," Swedish journalist Erik Persson told The Country.
Observers do not rule out that the Swedish and Finnish authorities hope that the deal will remain on paper and no one will have to be deported in reality. But, as Erdogan bluntly stated, if there is no extradition, then there will be no consent of the Turkish parliament for Sweden and Finland to join NATO. And this process will be blocked.
At the same time, even if the Scandinavian countries want to extradite someone in reality, the extradition procedure may take a long time - for many months or even years. And the question of the two countries joining NATO will thus be suspended for a very long time.
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* – a terrorist organization banned in Russia
