Published: July 11, 2023
Updated: 4:40 pm
AuthorEditorial Staff
Sweden Surrenders
Michael Rubin | American Enterprise Institute
NATO officials and many diplomats celebrated a deal by which Recep Tayyip Erdogan lifted his de facto veto over Sweden’s NATO accession in exchange for a series of concessions. I had previously written about the dangers of lifting defense sanctions on Turkey that is much more likely to use F-16s against its neighbors, including NATO member Greece, than in pursuit of NATO aims.
Yesterday, I raised concerns about how the agreement’s apparent provisions to fast track Turkey’s European Union membership could, if successful, hobble the European Union and throw smaller pro-Western democracies like Cyprus under the bus.
Robert Ellis, an expert Turkey analyst and prolific columnist in Turkish papers, raises an additional issue. He points out this paragraph in the NATO press statement that followed the meeting between Erdogan, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg:
Sweden and Turkey agree today to continue their cooperation under both the Trilateral Permanent Joint Mechanism established at the Madrid NATO Summit 2022, and under a new bilateral Security Compact that will meet annually at ministerial level and create working groups as appropriate. At the first meeting of this Security Compact, Sweden will present a roadmap as the basis of its continued fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations towards the full implementation of all elements of the Trilateral Memorandum, including article 4. Sweden reiterates that it will not provide support to YPG/PYD, and the organisation described as FETÖ in Turkey.
There are two problems with this:
First, it is not clear that Erdogan and other NATO members assess the Kurds similarly. The United States did not designate the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to be a terrorist entity until 1997, long after its insurgency had peaked, and only then added it to the terrorism list as a Turkish condition for Clinton to close a multibillion-dollar arms deal with Turkey. Turkey today argues Syrian Kurds (YPG/PYD) are PKK affiliates. The NATO document ignores that the United States and many in Europe supported the Syrian Kurds (YPG/PYD) because they fought against the Islamic State at a time when Turkey was at least passively supporting the Islamic State. More broadly, Erdogan has a habit of labeling any Kurds not under his thumb as PKK: Bomb a Yazidi village and kill women and children? No problem, they were PKK operatives. Attack a Kurdish farm in Sinjar? The farmers were PKK. It is a Turkish fiction in which neither Sweden nor any other NATO member should indulge, especially as Turkey continues to indulge, harbor, and arm real terrorists.
Second, FETÖ [Fethullahist Terrorist Organiation] is a chimera, a catch-all term used by Erdogan to paint opposition as illegitimate and terroristic. When Erdogan demanded the United States extradite Fethullah Gülen, Erdogan’s one-time ally, the Justice Department found the evidence Turkey handed over to be essentially little more than clippings from pro-Erdogan tabloids. In Sweden’s case, Erdogan argues that liberal Turkish journalists who fled Erdogan’s press crackdown are really FETÖ agents.
Kristersson, with Stoltenberg’s urging, is now willing to throw Swedish democracy under the bus. He transforms Sweden from a refuge for dissidents into a hunting ground for them. Allowing Erdogan to define who is a terrorist and who is not seeds crises and Erdogan’s grievance posturing for years to come.
Sweden’s NATO accession does little to enhance NATO capabilities, but it does much to diminish Sweden and Europe. During World War II, Norwegian leader Vidkun Quisling betrayed his country and collaborated with Germany. His reward was not only an eventual firing squad, but also the adoption of his last name into the English language as a word to describe someone who collaborates with an occupier. Kristersson, of course, is no Quisling nor is Turkey equivalent to Nazi Germany. Kristersson’s cowardice and willingness to betray core principles, however, raise the possibility that, at least in some quarters, his last name may soon enter the vocabulary to describe a person who betrays liberalism and human rights to appease a foreign dictator.
Michael Rubin is a former Pentagon official whose major research areas are the Middle East, Turkey, Iran and diplomacy. He is author of “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter, 2014). He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute AEI. His major research area is the Middle East, with special focus on Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Kurdish society. Read more by Michael Rubin.
The article first published at aei.org
Copyright © 2023, respective author or news agency, aei.org
AuthorEditorial Staff
Sweden Surrenders
Michael Rubin | American Enterprise Institute
NATO officials and many diplomats celebrated a deal by which Recep Tayyip Erdogan lifted his de facto veto over Sweden’s NATO accession in exchange for a series of concessions. I had previously written about the dangers of lifting defense sanctions on Turkey that is much more likely to use F-16s against its neighbors, including NATO member Greece, than in pursuit of NATO aims.
Yesterday, I raised concerns about how the agreement’s apparent provisions to fast track Turkey’s European Union membership could, if successful, hobble the European Union and throw smaller pro-Western democracies like Cyprus under the bus.
Robert Ellis, an expert Turkey analyst and prolific columnist in Turkish papers, raises an additional issue. He points out this paragraph in the NATO press statement that followed the meeting between Erdogan, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg:
Sweden and Turkey agree today to continue their cooperation under both the Trilateral Permanent Joint Mechanism established at the Madrid NATO Summit 2022, and under a new bilateral Security Compact that will meet annually at ministerial level and create working groups as appropriate. At the first meeting of this Security Compact, Sweden will present a roadmap as the basis of its continued fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations towards the full implementation of all elements of the Trilateral Memorandum, including article 4. Sweden reiterates that it will not provide support to YPG/PYD, and the organisation described as FETÖ in Turkey.
There are two problems with this:
First, it is not clear that Erdogan and other NATO members assess the Kurds similarly. The United States did not designate the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to be a terrorist entity until 1997, long after its insurgency had peaked, and only then added it to the terrorism list as a Turkish condition for Clinton to close a multibillion-dollar arms deal with Turkey. Turkey today argues Syrian Kurds (YPG/PYD) are PKK affiliates. The NATO document ignores that the United States and many in Europe supported the Syrian Kurds (YPG/PYD) because they fought against the Islamic State at a time when Turkey was at least passively supporting the Islamic State. More broadly, Erdogan has a habit of labeling any Kurds not under his thumb as PKK: Bomb a Yazidi village and kill women and children? No problem, they were PKK operatives. Attack a Kurdish farm in Sinjar? The farmers were PKK. It is a Turkish fiction in which neither Sweden nor any other NATO member should indulge, especially as Turkey continues to indulge, harbor, and arm real terrorists.
Second, FETÖ [Fethullahist Terrorist Organiation] is a chimera, a catch-all term used by Erdogan to paint opposition as illegitimate and terroristic. When Erdogan demanded the United States extradite Fethullah Gülen, Erdogan’s one-time ally, the Justice Department found the evidence Turkey handed over to be essentially little more than clippings from pro-Erdogan tabloids. In Sweden’s case, Erdogan argues that liberal Turkish journalists who fled Erdogan’s press crackdown are really FETÖ agents.
Kristersson, with Stoltenberg’s urging, is now willing to throw Swedish democracy under the bus. He transforms Sweden from a refuge for dissidents into a hunting ground for them. Allowing Erdogan to define who is a terrorist and who is not seeds crises and Erdogan’s grievance posturing for years to come.
Sweden’s NATO accession does little to enhance NATO capabilities, but it does much to diminish Sweden and Europe. During World War II, Norwegian leader Vidkun Quisling betrayed his country and collaborated with Germany. His reward was not only an eventual firing squad, but also the adoption of his last name into the English language as a word to describe someone who collaborates with an occupier. Kristersson, of course, is no Quisling nor is Turkey equivalent to Nazi Germany. Kristersson’s cowardice and willingness to betray core principles, however, raise the possibility that, at least in some quarters, his last name may soon enter the vocabulary to describe a person who betrays liberalism and human rights to appease a foreign dictator.
Michael Rubin is a former Pentagon official whose major research areas are the Middle East, Turkey, Iran and diplomacy. He is author of “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter, 2014). He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute AEI. His major research area is the Middle East, with special focus on Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Kurdish society. Read more by Michael Rubin.
The article first published at aei.org
Copyright © 2023, respective author or news agency, aei.org
No comments:
Post a Comment