NATO headquarters building in Brussels. Archival photoMOSCOW, May 29th. Three recent decisions of the Turkish leadership are contrary to the interests of NATO and create points of contention with the allies, writes Die Welt columnist Carolina Druten. The author turned to Ankara's recent foreign policy decisions that have caused discontent among the allies in the West. Thus, Turkey has actually blocked the entry into the alliance of Sweden and Finland, putting forward conditions that Stockholm and Helsinki are not yet ready to fulfill. The United States criticized Turkey's position, but the analyst doubted that Washington would go into another conflict with Ankara, which means the impossibility of the northern countries joining the military bloc. The West was also dissatisfied with President Erdogan's decision to launch a military operation in northern Syria against the Kurdish forces. German politicians, in particular, declared the contradiction of Turkey's actions with international law. Ankara explained them by the need to ensure its own security and return Syrian refugees to their homeland. «In any case, another large-scale operation in northern Syria is fraught with the potential to escalate disagreements between Turkey and its NATO partners,» Druten added.
The Prime Minister of Greece called Turkey's position on NATO expansion a mistake. In addition, Erdogan announced the severing of ties with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The author drew attention to the fact that the Turkish Air Force has been increasingly violating Greek airspace in recent months. In this regard, the head of the government of the republic asked the US Congress to ban the sale of weapons to Turkey. In particular, we are talking about Ankara's purchase of F-16 fighter jets. It was this appeal that aroused indignation among the Turkish side. Akif Çağatay Kılıç, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Parliament, accused the Greeks of trying to deprive their NATO allies of protection. Turkey has blocked the start of the process of consideration of these applications. Erdogan said Ankara would not support Helsinki and Stockholm's NATO bids because it could not rely on their assurances regarding the PKK banned in Turkey. Foreign Minister of the republic Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the country «needs a written agreement» with Sweden and Finland «on a concrete step» by these countries to stop their support for terrorism. Russia has repeatedly noted that NATO is aimed at confrontation. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that further expansion of the alliance would not bring greater security to Europe, since the bloc has an aggressive character. At the same time, he noted that he did not consider the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO an existential threat to Russia. NATO
