Sweden has reached solutions with Türkiye over its security concerns

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement of his country’s approval of Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) raised many questions about the reasons for his sudden acceptance of Stockholm’s request to join the military alliance and referring this matter to the Turkish parliament for a vote.

Does this mean that both sides reached an agreement between them? Can Stockholm gain NATO membership before next October?

In this race, a Turkish academic and expert in international relations considered that “Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s accession to NATO was necessary because Ankara has been a member of this alliance since 1952 and ranks second in terms of importance among the member states after the United States.”

Nael Alkan, an academic and professor of international relations at Turkey’s Haji Bayram University, said, “Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s accession to NATO means that Stockholm has reached solutions with Ankara regarding its security concerns, especially since Turkey’s approval of its request comes after talks that lasted about a year.”

Austria is on the road to NATO

He added to Al-Arabiya.net that “Sweden, and before that Finland, requested NATO membership as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war, and since Ankara is in this alliance, it has finally agreed to the accession of both countries to it, respectively,” suggesting that “Austria will also request NATO membership in the future.” “.

He also explained that “Turkey was rejecting Sweden’s membership in NATO as a result of its facilitation with the PKK and its failure to take harsh measures against it, and this was the subject of disagreement between the two countries over the concept of terrorism, an issue similar to Turkey’s differences with Brussels over its quest to join the European Union since 1999.” “.

Sweden bowed to Türkiye’s fears

The Turkish academic also stressed that “Sweden has finally acquiesced to Turkey’s fears regarding terrorism and has begun to take steps in the direction of Ankara’s wishes, which it agreed to request as a result, and of course if the allied countries are at war, they must help each other, and for example if there is a party A Swede in Turkey works against Stockholm, the Swedish government will object to this matter, and therefore the West must understand Turkey’s concerns and its previous objection to Sweden’s accession to NATO, especially since it has been in conflict with the PKK since the eighties of the last century.

Until now, it is not known yet, when Sweden’s request to join NATO will be referred to the Turkish parliament, which closes its doors until next October in the summer vacation, but the Turkish president can issue an urgent decision regarding an emergency meeting of Parliament to refer Stockholm’s request to it.

Parliament vote

In this regard, Alkan said, “The date for referring Sweden’s request to the Turkish parliament is not known yet because there is a summer vacation in parliament that will extend until the end of next September.”

He added, “It is not known yet if this request is the first thing that will be put to a vote in Parliament after the end of the recess, but the most important thing now is the Turkish president’s approval of Stockholm’s accession to NATO.”

A few days ago, the Turkish president announced his country’s approval of Sweden’s accession to NATO, after refusing to do so for about a year, on the grounds of his accusation that Stockholm supported the “PKK” and harbored Kurdish activists on its soil, whom Ankara describes as “terrorists.”

Sweden is the second country to accept Türkiye’s membership in NATO after Finland.