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Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by tut-urut-utut on Monday May 16, 2022 @10:36AM (#31397974)
From the Turkish perspective, why would they allow someone who supports their enemies to join the alliance?

I guess both Swedish and Finnish government would both need to swallow a few frogs to comply with these requirements.

At least, they won't be able to maintain a moral high horse over Turkey any more after complying.

Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by alkonaut on Monday May 16, 2022 @10:47AM (#31398193)
> From the Turkish perspective, why would they allow someone who supports their enemies to join the alliance?

This makes it sound like Sweden does something that other NATO members don't. That's not the case. Sweden supports the SDC in syria, which supports the YPG, which is connected to the PKK. And this is controversial in several of the countries that do this, including the US.

While it's true that it's Sweden applying for membership and not anyone else, the logical thing for Turkey to do here is to try to pressure the whole alliance to adopt some policy change (such as a terror clasification for YPG, and/or no more aid to SDC and connected groups).

Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by mcv on Monday May 16, 2022 @11:39AM (#31399046)
Exactly. Turkey's objection doesn't really have much to do with Sweden and Finland, it's more an opportunity for Turkey to get concessions from other NATO members on an issue on which Turkey disagrees with the rest of NATO: the Kurds.
Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by mabbo on Monday May 16, 2022 @10:38AM (#31398022)
> why would they allow someone who supports their enemies to join the alliance?

Because Russia is still the scarier enemy. If the rest of NATO approves, what is Turkey going to do? Leave NATO and accept eventual invasion?

Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by mk89 on Monday May 16, 2022 @10:45AM (#31398170)
As far as I know, it has to be approved unanimously, so Turkey can say "NO" and nothing will happen. The point is that ... today Turkey makes demands, sure, but tomorrow it's someone else, or event today itself, except that Turkey is more "dramatic" about it. Who knows what Finland and Sweden actually have to "give" in order to join NATO. That's life, and that's also okay.

Which is BTW similar to what's happening to EU: they realized that some states have too much power in the admission process, so they want to "speed up" the process. Probably they will go for a "3/4" of the members have to say YES. That kind of stuff. Same old, same old.

Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by srhngpr on Monday May 16, 2022 @10:41AM (#31398095)
If I recall correctly, it requires unanimous vote of approval.
Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by tuukkah on Monday May 16, 2022 @11:01AM (#31398418)
Everyone else leaves NATO and sets up NATO2 where Sweden and Finland are members but Turkey is not.
Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by xhevahir on Monday May 16, 2022 @11:17AM (#31398704)
That sounds like a very big and complicated undertaking, both politically and militarily.

Turkey has NATO's second-largest army, for one thing.

Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by tuukkah on Monday May 16, 2022 @11:29AM (#31398897)
Perhaps it's more important to have Turkey in NATO than Sweden and Finland, but I honestly don't know. I hear Finland has a strong army and it's useful to have all of the Baltic Sea countries in NATO.
Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by xxpor on Monday May 16, 2022 @11:51AM (#31399231)
Turkey's location is incredibly important strategically. They control access to the Black Sea.
Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by tuukkah on Monday May 16, 2022 @04:38PM (#31402871)
Turkey is second-largest based on manpower, right? Time to update that ranking soon: Turkey 775,000 vs Finland 937,000 military personnel available
Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by m00dy on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @12:43PM (#31413245)
hahahha :D You missed the fact that every turk born as a soldier when it comes to availability :)
Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by pdabbadabba on Monday May 16, 2022 @11:21AM (#31398763)
> From the Turkish perspective, why would they allow someone who supports their enemies to join the alliance?

Because the accession process provides Turkey an opportunity to apply leverage against Sweden and Finland to change their behavior. Simply refusing to allow it would gain Turkey nothing and harm them indirectly by weakening (or failing to strengthen) an alliance that Turkey depends on for its own security.

Re:Sweden to Apply for NATO Membership by theshrike79 on Monday May 16, 2022 @11:37AM (#31399005)
> From the Turkish perspective, why would they allow someone who supports their enemies to join the alliance?

...because neither country is supporting Erdoğan's enemies? The dictator is just posturing for his own people, he'll never actually dare to vote against every other country in NATO.