Turkey's President has blocked Finland and Sweden's historic decision to join NATO, shocking members of the alliance by saying he could not support the two countries' memberships.
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday Sweden should not expect Turkey to approve its NATO bid without returning people it deems terrorists harboured by the two countries; namely the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and followers of Fethullah Gulen.
Earlier this week news broke of Sweden and Finland's plans to request membership to NATO, in what would be considered a major blow to Vladimir Putin's Russia amid his war in Ukraine.
Following a security debate in parliament on Monday in which Swedish lawmakers discussed the merits of joining the alliance, the country's ruling Social Democratic Government took the formal step to apply for membership.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson's announcement came shortly after neighbouring Finland said it too would join NATO - in a move that will redraw the geopolitcal map of Europe.
When the two countries signalled they were thinking of making the historic decision, the alliance expected a tough response from Moscow, not from one of its own.
Yet at a gathering of NATO foreign ministers with their Finnish and Swedish counterparts on Saturday to celebrate the biggest shift in European security in decades, Turkey's participant reportedly darkened the mood.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was "in crisis mode", a NATO diplomat has now said of the evening meeting in Berlin.
Turkey's President, Tayyip Erdogan, reportedly shocked fellow NATO members days before by saying he could not support membership for either Finland or Sweden.
Cavusoglu on Saturday backed this position by not only setting conditions for Turkey accepting the membership bids, but raised his voice at Sweden's Ann Linde in what three NATO diplomats said was an "embarrassing" break in protocol.
"For us it was a historic moment and yet Cavusoglu said he was irritated at Linde's 'feminist policy', bringing so much drama," another NATO diplomat said, describing a very tense atmosphere in the German foreign ministry in Berlin.
Many allies opted for silence to calm the situation, they said.
"We were trying to understand what our Turkish colleague wanted - you know, really wanted," said the diplomat, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
"It was embarrassing."
Turkey's main demands are for the Nordic countries to halt support for Kurdish militant groups present on their territory, and to lift their bans on some sales of arms to the country.
Ankara says the arms ban - adopted by the Nordic countries in response to Turkey's 2019 military incursion into northern Syria against Kurdish militants - was inappropriate for prospective members of a security pact.
Turkish state broadcaster TRT said Sweden and Finland had not approved Turkey's request for the repatriation of 33 people with alleged links to groups it sees as terrorists.
The chairman of the Swedish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Kenneth Forslund, said a solution could be found, but elsewhere.
"That Sweden would start expelling people who are not considered terrorists according to the terror lists the EU has, that's totally unthinkable," he said.
On Wednesday, the Turkish Presidency said a key Erdogan adviser had spoken with counterparts from Sweden, Finland, Germany, the United Kingdom and United States.
NATO membership progress was only possible if Turkey's expectations were met, it said.
One person close to the situation gave a more upbeat assessment, saying the conversation with Sweden was positive and opened the door for the delegation visits next week.
Yet the calls on Wednesday came after five days of struggles by the Nordic countries to reach Erdogan's office, the person said.
"All this is muddying the waters, but not holding up the overall accession plan," the person said, under condition of anonymity.
Turkey is one of the rare countries in the Black Sea region that has good relations with both Ukraine and Russia.
From the outset of Russia’s war on Ukraine, President Erdogan has emphasised that Turkey does not want to choose between Russia and Ukraine.
He supports Ukraine due to the Crimean Tatar connection and Ankara’s bilateral partnership with Kyiv – not to mention Turkey’s traditional instinct to balance Russian power in the Black Sea.
Yet Ankara has developed a complicated web of interdependence with Moscow, primarily because it wants to gain strategic autonomy from the West.
Personally, Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have faced many challenges in their relationship in recent years.
Turkey is the only NATO member that has not closed its airspace to Russia or imposed economic sanctions on the country.
Putin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated Turkey’s strategic importance once again.
Erdogan has hosted a series of peace negotiations in Istanbul, thereby establishing himself as the only NATO leader who can facilitate such events.
