How Ukraine joins Russia
Posted on 03/17/2023 10:04:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The "NATO membership train is moving" - as one Friday headline out of Europe states enthusiastically, after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced Turkey will ratify Finland’s NATO membership application prior to the Turkish elections in May.
Erdogan said in a Friday press briefing while standing alongside Finnish President Sauli Niinisto the he's asked Turkey's parliament to approve ratification. However, it also became clear that Sweden's bid will not be approved.
JUST IN: Turkey to greenlight Finland's NATO membership bid. "We have decided to initiate the ratification process in our parliament", Turkish President Erdogan said after meeting his Finnish counterpart Niinisto in Ankara. Ratification expected soon, before TR elections in May. pic.twitter.com/kEFbu2VE66 — Julia Hahn (@juliahahntv) March 17, 2023
"We have decided to start the protocol of Finland's accession to NATO in our parliament," Erdogan said following a meeting with his Finnish counterpart.
Concerning Sweden, Erdogan commented that his country submitted a list of 120 "terrorists" to Stockholm, but complained that not a single one of them has been extradited.
Sweden's membership bid is expected to continue to stall, after deteriorating relations with Turkey in the wake of the Quran-burning incident by a far-right activist. Turkey has also demanded Swedish authorities crackdown on Kurdish political groups and operatives while alleging that Stockholm has hosted "terrorists" on its soil.
Finland is at the same time building a 200km fence along its border with Russia to boost security, also after reporting that Russian men fled into Sweden by the droves in order to escape conscription. The fence will reportedly be 10 feet high and topped with barbed wire.
I view Turkey to be problematic. I’m sure not convinced
it would be better if it allied with Russia against us.
In this instance, it was pretty clever actually.
It can say to Russia, look we sided with you in regard to
Sweden. In reality, Russia would have to climb over
Finland to get the Sweden, so Turkey actually did NATO
a solid.
Sweden gets protection anyway.
What if the U. S. did fight and die for the damn Turks?
Would Turkey likely be more favorable to us, no different,
or less favorable?
I doubt they would be inclined to be less favorable.
The populace would very much appreciate it. Hopefully
the leaders would be more pro-Western also.
Like the Chinese “appreciated” us defeating the Japs?
China was taken over by the Communists. Communists are
natural enemies of Capitalist Free Enterprise nations.
While China has embraced Capitalism because Communism
can’t sustain a nation long term, it is still a
Democracy, one that keeps it’s thumb on its citizens
in order to maintain order.
If the old leadership had remained in place, I think
there is good reason to believe it would have been
favorable to the United States.
A blessing in disguise for the Sweeds.
Erdogan has a point. Sweden is unfortunately becoming more Muslim than Turkey.
Russia is just the latest incarnation of the Mongol Horde.
How Ukraine joins Russia
Erdogan has an election coming, and polling doesn’t look good for him. For now, he must “split the baby” to appease both the moderates and the head choppers. Should he win, he will “have more flexibility after the election”. Should he lose, his opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has stated he will admit Sweden. Either way, I predict Sweden will be in NATO by the end of the year.
Which is why Russia's complaints about NATO being some sort of military threat to Russia's existence are hogwash.
OTOH, the socio-economic threat to Russia's elite if it stayed on the socio-economic course IT had been on under Putin (pre-invasion), with a increasingly Western leaning and prosperous Ukraine next door, IS existential. One must understand the (former) ties between the two countries -- it seems like 2 out of 3 Ukrainians have relatives in Russia.
To survive, the Russian leadership elite would have to get out of the Middle Ages.
What we have here with Russian leadership are not "barbarians", exactly. More precisely: THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO RESPOND OR ADAPT TO A CULTURALLY BASED SOCIO-ECONOMIC "THREAT" TO THEIR POWER, EXCEPT WITH MILITARY FORCE AND SUBJUGATION OF NEIGHBORS WHO HAVE DECIDED THEY DAMN WELL DON'T LIKE BEING PART OF THAT MODEL ANY MORE. (Sorry, HAD to caps that point. 😀 )
Economically, Turkey is a real basket case right now.
I’ll toss in that while they have had some internal problems with Muslim repression of Christians, and some internal but smallish (for the size of the population) groups exporting terrorism, Indonesia (the world’s most populous Muslim country) has not been externally a big problem. As a country it pretty much behaves. Ditto for Malaysia.
It’s human nature to want to live in a safe society.
Most people just want to get along, unless there are agitators in the mix.
NATO had stated Sweden & Finland would be under NATO’s wing anyway, if either or both were attacked while Turkey or Hungary was holding out. It’s pretty much a forgone conclusion the other major NATO members had signed off on that, so, effectively, if not on paper, it’s a done deal.
The posters who raged that Finland and Sweden would never be in NATO are pretty quiet about that now...
Winner of Turkey’s May elections very important for their future. Erdogon has been changing the country strongly in the Islamic direction from the secular path chosen almost a century ago. There were 6 small parties planning on fighting Erdogan’s reelection.
Fortunately as you pointed out, they have agreed on running one candidate. Those parties have strength in the earthquake zone. Probably a lot to be angry about and vote out the current govt. The Kurds are another festering internal problem. Erdogon is very anti Kurd. How do the other parties and the people feel about the Kurd question? A lot to watch in the next 2 months.
Funny, since Turkey has their own little illegal occupation still going on in Northern Cyprus.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.