Turkey is in a strong position, but not enough to checkmate. On the chessboard of a membership of Sweden in NATO, the latter made a bad move. On Wednesday, the first day of Eid al-Adha, Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi who fled his country for Sweden, stomped on the Koran several times before slipping slices of bacon into it and burning a few. pages in front of the largest mosque in the capital.
The act described as “unacceptable” by Ankara has sparked the ire of the Muslim world, giving Recep Tayyip Erdogan a means of pressure in the game which is being played out more broadly. While Turkey has been blocking Sweden’s membership for months, it now has a pawn to advance. “The two protagonists take turns playing their pressure cards, and yesterday Turkey regained the advantage”, explains to 20 minutes, Adel Bakawan, associate researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) and specialist in the Middle East.
Instrumentalization of Turkey
Ankara has been asking Sweden for months to send it back senior executives of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) classified as terrorist by Turkey. Stockholm has always imposed its categorical refusal. But this refusal is becoming increasingly difficult to uphold as Sweden needs Turkey’s vote to be able to follow its Finnish neighbor into the Atlantic Alliance. “Those who commit this crime as well as those who allow it under the guise of freedom of opinion, those who tolerate this despicable act will not be able to achieve their ambitions”, threatened the newly re-elected Turkish president, a week before the meeting with Turkey’s and Sweden’s top diplomats in Brussels to discuss Stockholm’s candidacy.
“Turkey instrumentalizes this incident to perfection by staging itself as the representative of Muslim conscience throughout the world”, further analyzes Adel Bakawan. Ankara thus threatens to mobilize the Arab-Muslim world and never to vote for Sweden’s membership if it does not comply with its request. Submitting to this request “would be very expensive for Sweden”, warns the specialist.
But the round is not over yet. Stockholm will no doubt be able to count on its American ally to try to negotiate and moderate the Turkish president’s requests. Moreover, if today the context is in favor of Ankara, “from now on the big events do not last more than one or two weeks, Sweden must be patient and resist, Turkey should return to its rationality in a few time,” predicts Adel Bakawan. Part to follow.
