Turkey's authoritarian leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan threw cold water on his country's support for Finland and Sweden being accepted into NATO, a position that will please the Kremlin. Finland announced yesterday that it would seek membership in the alliance "without delay." NATO membership is given to applying nations only after all 30 current members of the alliance agree. Saying that Turkey is "not favorable" to the two Scandinavian countries joining, Erdogan based his opposition to Finland and Sweden supporting Kurdish independence groups, which Turkey considers to be terrorist organizations.
The fact that Erdogan didn't outright say Turkey would vote "no" on accepting the two nations (Sweden is leaning toward applying) signals that he'll use their alleged support for those Kurdish groups and other opponents of his regime as a bargaining chip. While Turkey has criticized Russia's brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, they have not joined in the sanctions against them, and have acted as a go-between in stalled negotiations between the two sides.
Turkey has the second largest army in NATO, next to the U.S., with almost 800,000 active duty troops.
(photo: Sean Gallup / Getty)
