Finland has turned a blind eye to the purchase of Turkish-made drones by turning a blind eye to Ankara in a bid to win Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s consent to join NATO.
Pending the meeting of officials from Stockholm, Helsinki and Ankara in Brussels soon announced by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, with the aim of removing the deadlock, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Elka that his country “may be interested in some Turkish-made weapon systems” and that drones “may be included in these systems”, according to the Turkish news website SavunmaSanayiST.
A purchase of Turkish drones such as the Bayraktar TB2, which is being built by a company owned by Erdogan’s son-in-law Selcuk Bayraktar and used by Ukraine in the war with Russia, would be perceived as a positive gesture by Turkey, the Financial Times comments.
Turkey has threatened to veto the two Nordic countries, especially Sweden, which has a large Turkish exile community, for offering refuge to Kurdish fighters from the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which it considers a terrorist organization. At the same time, Ankara wants the two countries to end the embargo on arms exports to Turkey, which they imposed together with other EU member states after the Turkish invasion of northern Syria three years ago with the aim of expelling Kurdish militias from the border.
Stockholm said yesterday that it would continue dialogue with Turkey over its objections, according to Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson. The Finnish Foreign Minister said that his country does not ban arms exports to Turkey and that sales will be examined on a case-by-case basis.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto also took part in Helsinki’s charm attack on Ankara, saying in a blog post that his country “takes the fight against terrorism seriously” along with a photo of him laying flowers along with Erdogan in 2015 at the scene of a terrorist attack in Turkey.
“Finland condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and is actively working to prevent it. Finland’s approach and actions in the fight against terrorism are fully in line with the general line of NATO member states, also in terms of terrorism faced by Turkey. “In this light, the conditions for its accession are met,” Niinisto wrote.
Similar efforts have been made by Sweden to reassure Ankara that it is not banning arms exports to Turkey. The head of the military arms control department at the Strategic Products Inspectorate, Carl Everton, told the FT that although no arms sales licenses had been issued in Turkey since 2018, there was no embargo. “The assessments are based on the interests of Sweden’s defense, security and foreign policy. These interests can change over time. “And it will probably be considered at a political level how Sweden’s accession to NATO will affect Swedish export control policy.”
