To judge by Turkey’s pro-government media, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan scored a major geopolitical victory for his country at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Madrid. “Turkey slammed its fist on the table, Europe came to its knees,” declared the conservative Yeni Akit daily.
This was a reference to Erdogan’s brinkmanship over the accession of Sweden and Finland, which forced the alliance’s other members to invest time and energy in entreating him just as NATO faces its sternest test in decades as a result of Russian expansionism. The Nordic nations eventually signed an agreement with Turkey, pledging to address its security concerns, which center mainly on Kurdish groups that Ankara considers terrorists.
This allowed the president to withdraw his objections to their membership. As a reward, Erdogan got a face-to-face meeting with President Joe Biden and the White House’s backing for the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. NATO also held a special session to discuss its southern flank, allowing the Turkish leader to raise the threat of Kurdish terrorist groups, his personal hobbyhorse.
