Finland Has Been Admitted to NATO

Regardless of the tantrums thrown by Vlad, Finland’s admission to NATO remains unaffected. The caravan will move on, even if the dog barks.

Sweden may have to wait quite a bit to be accepted into NATO, even beyond the Turkish elections on May 14th. Let’s delve into some reasons:

It has been eight months since Sweden signed the Trilateral Memorandum in Madrid, but they have only extradited one of the 120 fugitives wanted for arrest by different Turkish courts – and that one was only accused of fraud. Meanwhile, other suspects accused of terrorism-related crimes and those aiding and abetting terrorism are living freely in Sweden, despite committing heinous acts of violence. The Swedish judiciary has only reviewed five cases for extradition in the past eight months, and have rejected four of those cases, excluding the fraud suspect. However, Sweden appears to have no plans to expedite their review process. Therefore, why should Turkey hasten Sweden’s NATO admission, when the alliance requires all member nations to defend each other?

Moreover, Sweden permits fundraising by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on its soil, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., the EU, Australia, Canada, UK, and several more countries. The group has killed over 45,000 Turks and many Kurds (who strongly oppose their violent tactics) since resorting to terrorism in 1984. This fact was even admitted to by Sweden’s Chief Negotiator, Oscar Stenström, during an interview with state-owned Sveriges Radio on January 29th, 2023, when he said – “Unlike Finland, we have a larger share of the funding for the PKK from Sweden” (Source: Europe-cities, News article titled “Oscar Stenström says that more and more incidents of gang violence in Sweden are linked to the terrorist group PKK” by Sugar Mizzy on January 29th, 2023). Therefore, if a friendly nation allowed ISIS to organize rallies and gather funds for their heinous cause, would the U.S. accept such a nation into NATO?

Lastly, for those politically cynical individuals who believe Turkish President Erdogan may change his stance after the elections, they need to understand that a country’s national security concerns remain similar, regardless of who governs it. Analysts may be surprised by this reality, even if a new government comes to power on May 14th in Türkiye.