Kurdistan tensions
An anonymous Bloomberg report summarized conversations with three senior Turkish officials about Ankara’s goals in relation to Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, focusing on Kurds and regional influence. The discussions highlighted Ankara’s insistence that new NATO candidates acknowledge concerns about Kurdish militias both inside Turkey and in Syria and Iraq.
The material notes that for Turkey, the Kurdistan issue remains the primary source of friction within the alliance. While all NATO members designate the PKK as a terrorist organization, several countries have supported or armed the Syrian PKK faction in the fight against ISIS, a group banned in Russia. Turkish officials argued that Finland and Sweden must publicly condemn not only the PKK but all affiliated groups before joining the bloc. They indicated that simply recognizing the PKK as a terrorist organization would not suffice; Scandinavian authorities should take additional steps to curb PKK supporters active on their soil (Attribution: Bloomberg).
arms exports
The discussions also touched on arms export policies, with Ankara and several European partners urging an end to restrictions that followed Turkey’s 2019 invasion of Syria. Although Turkey’s direct arms trade with Finland and Sweden is limited and not driven by planned significant purchases, sources indicated that Turkey would resist entering a broader military partnership with states that hinder arms deals. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has emphasized that such restrictions run counter to the spirit of alliance cooperation (Attribution: Bloomberg).
These sources stress that Turkey aims to project a unified stance within the alliance on defense and security matters, even as commercial defense ties with Nordic nations remain modest in scale.
past mistakes
Agency insiders suggested Turkey is seeking to avoid repeating earlier missteps. In the 1980s, Turkey backed Greece’s return to NATO after the 1974 Cyprus clash, only to see Athens and its Cypriot allies become obstacles to Turkey’s bid for EU membership, opposing a UN plan to unify Cyprus and engaging in ongoing disputes with Ankara over parts of the Aegean and the Mediterranean. Officials said it would be unreasonable to expect a rapid shift in Turkey’s stance on Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership unless disputes were addressed and Nordic partners publicly supported Turkey against Kurdish groups (Attribution: Bloomberg).
Other requirements
Turkish officials indicated a desire to rejoin elements of the F-35 program from which Turkey was excluded after acquiring the S-400 missile defense system from Russia. They also called for Washington to lift sanctions related to the S-400 purchase. The discussions framed these as essential steps for broader regional cooperation (Attribution: Bloomberg).
Officials also dismissed the notion that Turkey’s resistance to Sweden and Finland joining NATO is primarily tied to Moscow or personal networks with Russia’s leadership. They indicated a preference for a balanced approach to the war in Ukraine that preserves Ankara’s ability to engage with both Moscow and Kyiv, including Turkey’s drone exports and security interests in Syria. The report concluded that a middle path was being sought to maintain regional stability while pursuing Ankara’s priorities (Attribution: Bloomberg).
Finland and Sweden in NATO
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden announced a shift from neutrality toward NATO membership and formally submitted applications to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on May 18. Earlier, on May 16, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signaled that Turkey could not approve their accession. He warned that accepting Sweden and Finland could transform NATO into a forum hosting numerous terrorist groups, and suggested that Sweden in particular harbored PKK elements in its parliament. He asserted that anti-terrorism pledges by Stockholm and Helsinki would not be trusted by Ankara (Attribution: Bloomberg).
Turkish leadership has also cited the absence of extradition agreements for individuals associated with Fethullah Gülen and the PKK as a point of contention. The stance reflects broader concerns about security and regional influence, shaping Ankara’s approach to the NATO enlargement debate (Attribution: Bloomberg).