Sweden and Finland have recently launched their bids in hopes of joining NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However the country’s bids have been met with objections from Turkey. Turkey has accused the countries of harboring “militants” from banned parties like the Kurdistan Workers Party. The countries have since denied the claims of harboring the parties but also stated that they do cooperate with Ankara in order to keep honesty. But Turkey still had its rebuttals about the bids, in its letter to Turkey, Sweden said that “concrete action has been taken on all core elements of the trilateral agreement”. The most recent statement is from NATO’s security general saying “will redouble efforts to implement the trilateral memorandum with Finland and Turkey”.
Turkey’s long standing history with the Krdish people is preventing Sweden and Finland from being a fellow member of NATO. Finland and Sweden are both politically stable democracies, if they were to join NATO it would mean a united North in NATO increases the Alliance’s military capacity and collective defense readiness. However if Turkey continues to object to their joining we won’t be able to see that. But why does Turkey have such tension with kurdistan? The kurdish people are a stateless nation, meaning they have a region in which they live but they have no independence or sovereignty in their matters. The kurdish people live all around the Middle East. Mostly in Northern Iraq, northern Syria, Northwestern Iraq, and South Eastern Turkey. Turkey and kurdistans relation has been filled with mistrust from both ends, Kurdistan has been trying to gain independence leading to their armed conflict in 1989.
Kurdistan is a stateless nation like we have talked about in class. Kurdistan is one of the prime examples of a stateless nation because they don’t have their own land, sovereignty, or recognition from other countries including Turkey.