By Athena Papakosta

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan finally said “yes” to the question of Sweden joining NATO and gave Stockholm and the Allies the long-awaited green light for Swedish accession to the military Alliance.

The question remains as to when Sweden’s candidacy will be forwarded to the Turkish parliament, since the relevant NATO statement mentions “as soon as possible”, while analysts already see that the president of Turkey has played his tricks and is winning.

the “now”

For hours, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg sat with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson and Recep Tayyip Erdogan around a table with the aim of a substantial step forward in reaching a political agreement for Sweden to become the 32nd member of the military alliance. Alliance.

Having watched the thriller of the last few hours, there were not many who expected white smoke to come out, last night, in Vilnius. However, no one ever got tired of the Turkish president who in less than 24 hours suddenly turned the wheel twice causing a barrage of reactions.

“I am pleased to announce that after the meeting I organized with Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Swedish Prime Minister, President Erdogan agreed to advance Sweden’s accession protocol to the Grand Alliance as soon as possible and secure ratification,” the General tweeted. NATO Secretary adding that “this is a historic step that makes all NATO Allies stronger and more secure.”

The country’s prime minister spoke of a “good day for Sweden”, declaring that he was “very happy”.

Sweden and Turkey have agreed to continue their cooperation both in the framework of the Tripartite Permanent Joint Mechanism established at the NATO Summit in Madrid in 2022, and in the framework of a new bilateral Security Pact that will meet annually at ministerial level and create working groups it depends on the situation. In addition, as underlined in the relevant announcement, Stockholm at the first meeting of the Security Pact should present a road map as the basis of the ongoing fight against terrorism while both parties agreed that counter-terrorism cooperation is a long-term effort.

The development was welcomed with a statement by the president of the United States, Joe Biden, who stated that he is ready to work “with President Erdogan and Turkey to strengthen defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area” while looking forward to welcoming “Wulf Christerson and Sweden as the 32nd member of the Alliance”.

the “before”

Shortly before leaving for Vilnius, the Turkish president made sure to throw a new, blackmail card into the negotiation by raising the issue of Turkey joining the European Union in order to remove Turkish objections to Sweden joining NATO.

“Right now there is a Turkey that has been waiting at the gates of the European Union for 50 years. Almost all NATO countries are members of the EU. I am addressing the countries that have put Turkey on hold for 50 years. First, open the way for Turkey to the EU, and we – as we did with Finland – will open the way for Sweden to NATO,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“We can’t take it anymore. 50 years have passed. We are not just any country. They must know,” the Turkish president added.

Erdogan’s bargains provoked reactions on both sides of the Atlantic. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, replied that these are unrelated issues, while the reaction of the European Commission was immediate.

“The enlargement of NATO and the inclusion of new members in it is a different process from that of the enlargement of the EU,” said Commission Deputy Dana Spinand and pointed out that “the Union has a very specific enlargement process with a very, very clear set of steps, which all candidate countries must follow, even those who wish to become candidate countries”.

Finally, however, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, after a meeting with the Turkish president in the capital of Lithuania, stated that there was an agreement to reactivate EU-Turkey relations.

It is worth recalling that Turkey’s accession path had been frozen since 2018 when the European Council noted that Ankara was moving further away from the Union “with the result that it is not possible to open or close further chapters”.

the “after”

Today, the baton of the interlocutor of the Turkish president is received by the president of the United States, Joe Biden. Although initially the upcoming meeting was only announced by the Turkish presidency, the White House issued a related announcement shortly after Erdogan’s “yes” for Sweden’s NATO membership.

Analysts have already noted for 12 months that the long-term bargain on the part of Erdogan reveals the connection of the long-desired F-16 fighters for Ankara with Sweden’s accession to NATO. Already, shortly before leaving for the Old Continent, the American president confirmed the fact, stressing to the American network CNN that he is looking for the appropriate balances.

“Turkey wants the modernization of the F-16s and Mitsotakis in Greece is asking for some help,” said Joe Biden, adding that “what I’m trying to do is to put together a small partnership to strengthen NATO in terms of military capability both of Greece as well as Turkey and to allow the integration of Sweden”.

Joe Biden and Recep Tayyip Erdogan had spoken by phone two 24 hours earlier and according to White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, the US president expressed to his Turkish counterpart “his longstanding and public commitment and support for providing F- 16 in Turkey”.

However, the Turkish president, unfolding his oriental bazaar – shortly before moving to Vilnius, chose to contrast the objections of the American Congress on the sale of F-16s to Turkey, the final approval of the Turkish parliament for Sweden’s accession to NATO.

“As you know, the Parliament will take the final decision. Without the Parliament’s decision we cannot take any step. For the F-16, they keep telling us that this has to go through Congress. Since they have the Congress, we have our parliament,” Menendez said, provoking an angry reaction from New York, who, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, clarified yesterday that “we cannot have a veto issue from any country in terms of how we make our own security decisions with any other country.”

Today, however, Erdogan will see the American president and with quid pro quo logic, both leaders will sit down at the negotiating table with the Turkish president preparing to take it all on his way.