Consequently, the North Atlantic Council cannot take the planned decision to start the accession process.
Earlier on Wednesday, the ambassadors of Finland and Sweden formally applied to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for membership of the Alliance at the North Atlantic Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Regep Taipa Erdogan has said Ankara cannot support NATO’s planned enlargement, which he said threatens the Alliance’s own security.
Authoritarian Turkish leaders have accused Sweden and Finland of “supporting terrorism” by sympathizing with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group banned in Turkey, and the Kurdish People’s Defense Forces (YPG) in Syria.
Ankara is considered by both groups to be a terrorist organization that poses an existential threat to national security, and there are frequent clashes between militants and Turkish security forces on the Turkish border with Iraq and Syria.
Meanwhile, the United States is actively cooperating with the YPG in Syria, which is considered one of the closest allies in the fight against the Islamic State.
In response to a military operation by Ankara against the YPG in 2019, Sweden and Finland, along with other countries, including Germany, imposed restrictions on arms exports to Turkey.
Mr Stoltenberg said Sweden’s and Finland’s application for NATO membership would be dealt with as soon as possible, but stressed that the security interests of all members of the alliance had to be taken into account.
Turkey could use its veto power to force the Allies to declare the YPG a terrorist organization, but Ankara could want Stockholm to suppress the PKK’s activities in Sweden, Soner Chagaptay, director of Turkey’s research program at the Washington Institute, told the DPA.
However, it will be difficult for Turkey to achieve its goals, as other NATO members are already showing little desire to show solidarity with Ankara on the Kurdish question, says Mustafa Aidin, a professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Kadira Hasa University.
In addition, the United States has already decided to admit Finland and Sweden to NATO.
