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Turkish Lawmakers Delay Vote on Sweden’s NATO Membership
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LanguageEnglish
Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: TURKEY SWEDEN NATO
HEADLINE: Turkish Lawmakers Delay Vote on Sweden’s NATO Membership
TEASER: Sweden vote is off Turkish parliament’s opening agenda as Erdogan raises pressure to clinch US fighter jet deal
PUBLISHED AT: 09/28/2023. 11:17a
BYLINE: Dorian Jones
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Istanbul
VIDEOGRAPHER: Berke Bas DO NOT USE NAME FOR SECURITY REASONS.
PRODUCER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: LR, MAS
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA Original, AFP, Reuters
PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV _x_ RADIO _X_
TRT: 3:07
VID APPROVED BY: Reifenrath
TYPE: TV/R
UPDATE: DO NOT USE BERKE BAS NAME FOR SECURITY REASONS; FOR PRODUCTION THURSDAY))
((INTRO)) [[Sweden's bid to join NATO is heading for a delay as Turkey's parliament starts a new session this Sunday without the NATO enlargement vote on the agenda. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, delaying a vote on Sweden's NATO membership puts Turkey on a collision course with Washington.]]
((NARRATOR))
Turkey’s NATO allies and others had hoped for a quick approval of Sweden’s bid to join the alliance when the Turkish parliament reopened on October first, but those hopes were dashed when Turkey’s parliament schedule showed the vote is not on the agenda.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip says his country’s ratification of Sweden’s bid is linked to whether the US congress approves the sale of American F-16 military jets to Turkey.
[[RADIO VERSION: Serhat Guvenc is a professor of International Relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul.]]
((Serhat Guvenc, Kadir Has University – MALE IN ENGLISH on camera- original))
“The key issue here at this point is the prospective sale of F-16s, newly built F-16s, and upgrade kits, F-16 upgrade kits, which have been on hold in the US Congress. Certainly, there is a linkage between the Swedish [NATO] membership and F-16s for Turkey.”
((NARRATOR))
Some in the US Congress oppose the sale of the jets over concerns about Turkish threats to neighboring Greece.
Erdogan, who backed Sweden's NATO membership, now says he cannot guarantee how his parliamentary deputies will vote on ratification.
[[RADIO VERSION: Ozgur Unluhisarcikli heads the German Marshall Fund office in Ankara.]]
((Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, German Marshall Fund – MALE IN ENGLISH)) ((VIA ZOOM))
“It's become like a chicken-egg story — like who should act first. Now, the United States is concerned that they could actually give the F-16's, and Turkey can still not ratify. And Ankara is concerned that Turkey could drop its only remaining card, and the United States may still not respond. That's the problem.”
((NARRATOR))
Observers say the continuing threat of Russian aggression means Washington is eager for NATO to admit Sweden, and they say a delay caused by Turkey is likely to displease the US leadership.
Still, observers say US President Joe Biden's options are limited, given Erdogan's close ties to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
[[RADIO VERSION: Turkey analyst Sinan Ciddi of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies:]]
((Sinan Ciddi, Foundation for Defense of Democracies – MALE IN ENGLISH)) ((VIA ZOOM))
“They think that if they basically pushed Turkey to essentially carry out or be a ball player within the West camp, that would push Erdogan over the edge, right, and throw in his lot with the Russians and the Iranians in the immediate region.”
((NARRATOR))
The impasse over Sweden's NATO membership is part of a more fundamental problem between Erdogan and Biden, some observers say, since Biden has confined his face-to-face contact with the Turkish leader to brief talks on sidelines of international summits. They say this has made the resolution of ongoing bilateral problems difficult.
[[RADIO VERSION: That is the view of Mustafa Aydin of the International Relations Council of Turkey.]]
((Mustafa Aydin, International Relations Council of Turkey – MALE IN ENGLISH - on camera- original))
“Erdogan just got an election, another five years. He's going to be the president of a country which is quite important for NATO, for the Middle Eastern politics, for the Caucasus and for the Black Sea politics. So how long [can] the United States can avoid to dealing and talking to this country and its leader?”
((NARRATOR))
But many observers warn a US Turkish summit is unlikely as long as Erdogan continues to block NATO’s enlargement.
((Dorian Jones, for VOA News, Istanbul))
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