Finland joins NATO (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65173043)
This one addition doubles the NATO border with Russia. Sweden intends to follow but Turkey has been blocking their entry because there have been incidents of anti-Muslim protests in Sweden, in particular examples of Koran burning.
Quote from: Tank on April 04, 2023, 01:01:06 PMFinland joins NATO (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65173043)
This one addition doubles the NATO border with Russia. Sweden intends to follow but Turkey has been blocking their entry because there have been incidents of anti-Muslim protests in Sweden, in particular examples of Koran burning.
If my country was part of Nato I'd be annoyed by a country imposing their dubious religion/values in this way.
The only reason Turkey is in NATO is because of its location relative to other countries in the ME.
Let's hope this will finally finish all the war talk.
:rimshot:
It also turns out that Turkey wants Sweden to extradite some Turkish citizens that they consider terrorists. And they may have legitimate cause to call these people terrorists. The Swed's appear to be amenable to carrying out a full investigation but want Turkey to de-link the NATO entry from the extradition and it appears this is making headway.
Turkey stands with a boot on the necks of the Kurds and yalps in outrage when the Kurds stick knives in their foot. So it goes.
turkey is a nato member mostly due to the bosphorus, imo. theve been leveraging that advantage for some time
Both Turkey and Greece are NATO members for broadly the same historical reason - guarding some waters, thereby preventing the spread of Communism.
If they were not, however, I suspect they would have ended up in possibly more than one war in the time since the formation of the alliance. That's one war/series of wars that I think NATO prevented successfully.
Personally, I'd rather have Sweden in NATO than Turkey, but then Sweden is just over yonder *points,* so I am geographically biased there. It's also worth noting that Sweden has land borders with friendly Finland and Norway, both NATO members, both countries that I'm almost completely certain would actively help defend her somewhat more vulnerable coast if attacked - regardless of Sweden's NATO status.