Turkey blocks early vote on Sweden and Finland joining Nato
www.theguardian.com
Move comes hours after the Nordic nations officially launched their bids to join the alliance

Turkey has blocked the vote for a fast accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO. This will delay the procedure for several months. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey wont allow Finland and Sweden to join NATO unless they extradite several members of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) and YPG (the militias of Rojava in Syria). The west must also lift its arms embargo on Turkey and allow Turkey to freely trade with Russia, including weapons trade (which is why the arms embargo was imposed). Erdogan also said Turkey wont sanction Russia and trade with them will continue as usual. Based.

  • @Shrike502
    19•2 years ago

    He’s just bargaining. Once they settle on a deal, he’ll do a 180 and wholeheartedly support it

    • DankZedong A
      6•2 years ago

      Isn’t he asking for some deals regarding Kurds? And to surrender one of the Kurdish leaders who is now in Sweden/Finland?

      The Kurds are one of Europe’s showhorses in the media and against Erdogan. Doing a 180 on their POV would not be great. I wonder if they’d do it just for NATO.

      • @Shrike502
        4•2 years ago

        It wouldn’t be great if the audience had an attention span. Or if the media reports it at all. Some under the table deals, media silence and voilà. Sorry if I sound overly pessimistic.