NATO was "tricked" by him, German media: Refusing to agree to Sweden's accession | Erdogan | German media
On July 8th, the German newspaper "Youth World" published an article titled "Frustration in Brussels", with the following excerpts:
He still did not give in: Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to allow Sweden to join NATO. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said on July 7th that the recent talks between the two countries have made initial progress. The upcoming NATO summit was intended to celebrate the comprehensive northern expansion achieved by Finland and Sweden's accession. Is there only preliminary progress before the summit? This is a real setback for NATO. The entire war club has been beating Ankara for over a year and has been pushing it to surrender, but now Stoltenberg has to make people look forward to the next meeting. He said that the meeting between Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Christian on July 10th will come up with a solution - perhaps.
How did Erdogan manage to manipulate the world's most powerful military alliance? This is because today NATO's dependence on Türkiye is far higher than Türkiye's dependence on NATO. This was not the case in the past. For decades, Ankara has closely integrated into the Western alliance structure through its Kemalist elites. Under the leadership of Erdogan, the situation has changed. Türkiye cooperates with Russia and China; It engaged in brutal wars in Syria and Libya, which the West did not want; Türkiye has established military bases in the Persian Gulf and the Horn of Africa, and it has become stronger. Türkiye has long been looking for alternatives to the West. Therefore, it is considering joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. If Türkiye finds a new alternative, the situation will be bad for NATO: it hopes Ankara will continue to serve as its outpost in the Near and Middle East.
Therefore, Erdogan can always play with his wrist. Sweden has already made concessions, and this first confirms one point: as long as there is no need to pay a price, the West will hold up its widely boasted values; But if the matter of joining NATO is hanging, they will set aside freedom and even amend the constitution - and their values will be worthless at that time. Erdogan has actually achieved enough results. Whether he will yield on July 10th may depend on a completely unrelated question: whether he will receive a commitment from the United States to provide F-16 fighter jets. This is because, in principle, Ankara can still benefit from its NATO membership by obtaining military equipment from the United States. So far, the United States Congress has acted as a hindrance. Biden is trying to get the Congress to approve the provision of F-16 to Türkiye. This may untie this knot. But in the long run, American jets may also have alternatives: Türkiye is currently developing unmanned combat aircraft, which is said to replace the F-16 one day. At that time, the West will lose one of its last chips.
