On March 7, 2024, Sweden – a historically non-aligned and neutral country, became the 32^nd full member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The latter is a military alliance “whose purpose is to safeguard the Allies’ freedom and security.” However, since its creation on April 4, 1949, with its clear aim to safeguard the freedom and security of its Allies, the NATO is constantly undermining and threatening the freedom and security of Russia…

Sweden, like Germany and Great Britain, has a large Kurdish community (about 100-150 thousand people). As is known, the formation of the Kurdish diaspora in this Scandinavian country began in the 1970s and further migration flows intensified in the 1980s-1990s and 2000s due to the fighting and repression in Turkey, as well as the occupation of Iraq. The Kurdish diaspora is quite politically active and well-integrated in Sweden, and is represented by six members in the local parliament…

On January 23, the Turkish parliament approved Sweden’s accession to NATO. This event was expected by some, and some, referring to the position of marginal Turkish political forces such as Patriotic Party with its Chairman Doğu Perinçek or the local Communist Party, held out hope for Turkey’s intransigence on the Swedish issue. However, the hopes of the latter did not come true due to Turkey’s traditional diplomacy, which is linked to its strategic security with the US and NATO. Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov warned that NATO accession of Finland and Sweden…

The issue of Sweden’s accession to NATO has once again acquired new facets of Turkish-Western (or rather, as the Jewish anecdote goes, Turkish-American) contradictions. Since May 2022, i.e. since Stockholm approached NATO for Sweden’s admission, Turkey has become the main obstacle to a positive resolution of the issue. Initially, Ankara’s demands included the Kurdish issue (more precisely, the fight against Kurdish terrorism and separatism), which was viewed rather liberally by the Swedish democracy. Turkey demanded to toughen Swedish…

As you know, in July this year at the NATO summit in Vilnius, the key topic was the issue of the alliance’s enlargement and the Turkish parliament’s decision on Sweden’s membership. President Erdoğan at that time promised his allies to take a favorable view of Sweden’s status in NATO, provided Stockholm supports Turkey’s accession to the EU. In other words, the Turkish leader did not emphasize the problem of Kurdish separatism in Vilnius and did not strictly adhere to the list of extradition to Ankara of Kurdish extremists who had found refuge in Sweden…

At the NATO summit in Vilnius in July, it was as if a breakthrough had been made in hastening Sweden’s entrance to the North Atlantic Alliance. As previously disclosed, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated on the eve and during the summit that Ankara would be willing to expedite the consideration of Sweden’s NATO membership and link its decision to a similar procedure for Turkey’s EU entrance. In other words, whether satisfied with Stockholm’s approach to toughening anti-terrorist legislation and treatment of Kurdish separatists who have taken refuge…

For more than a year now, since the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the question of admitting two North European countries, Finland and Sweden, to NATO has been on the table. As you know, Helsinki and Stockholm chose to abandon their neutral status and apply for NATO membership in March 2022. It is clear that Russia did not pose a nuclear or other military threat to Sweden or Finland. Furthermore, Moscow has always respected the neutrality of its Scandinavian neighbors in Stockholm and Helsinki…

Most western political analysts believed that Erdoğan’s opposition to Sweden’s NATO membership was only a ploy to garner political and electoral support at home to ensure his victory in the May 2023 presidential elections. However, even after winning the elections, the Erdoğan administration’s position on Sweden’s membership has not changed. The latest incident of the Quran burning in Sweden has further exacerbated the situation. More importantly, the group of protestors staged this Islamophobic incident in front of the Turkish embassy. Ironically, the Swedish government allowed this anti-Islam and anti-Turkey incident to happen, even though Stockholm would have known how this incident could hurt its NATO ambitions…

Political statements made before and after elections frequently diverge drastically. To a casual observer, it may appear that we are not discussing the same country. This is not even a matter of internal politics, where candidates lavishly spread slogans like “power to the people,” “only the people are masters of the state’s fate,” “corruption is death,” “inflation will be defeated,” “life will become better,” and so on to the electorate. There are situations when the results of elections also partially change the foreign policy emphases of the winning politicians, although before the vote they had said quite the opposite with a menacing look…

During the presidential election campaign, Erdoğan’s main rival, the leader of the opposition People’s Alliance block Kılıçdaroğlu, stated in his anti-Russian rhetoric that in case of his victory he would remind the Russians about Turkey’s membership in NATO. However, nobody in Moscow has forgotten that Turkey, either with Erdoğan or without him still (since February 1952) remains a member to the North Atlantic Treaty. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu failed to provide a well-reasoned explanation for his reminders, and now, after his defeat, he and all other leaders of the Republican People’s Party have resigned in connection to their failure…

The warnings by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan uttered during a meeting with the youth in Mugla on January 15 that relations between Turkey and Sweden could worsen if Stockholm did not take action against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) are becoming prophetic. As is known, in the summer of 2022, Turkey, Sweden...