[Goose]

Do have any idea why Turkey continues to prevent Sweden from joining NATO?  I know there is religious event issue, but can't we make the guy an offer he can't refuse?

No, we can't. If you look back through the posts you will see that I have believed this problem would persist at least until well after the election, and possibly beyond that. This was before the "religious event" even happened. Erdoğan did and does receive significant political benefit in Türkiye for his stance. He needed every bit of that he could get to win a very close election. The problem is now that he can't really back away from that position or he will lose that support going into what will undoubtedly be a difficult economic period for Türkiye.

It is undoubtedly also true that he believes that Sweden can stop these demonstrations if they want to, and the fact they do not is a sign they do not respect him or his government. While a lot of that is simply that in Sweden, dissent is somewhat protected by law, there is a grain of truth in Erdoğan's perception. Sweden has tolerated the PKK operating inside their country. These people are not Swedish. They probably could have been deported. They were not, partly because there is sympathy for the Kurds in lots of the NATO countries. Erdoğan really doesn't like that and asks how the alliance can have members that don't respect each other's governments. While he does have a point there, I am pretty sure the US State Department doesn't hold his government in very high esteem either, IMO for good reason.

He seems half in Russia's camp anyway.

Not really. He needs Russian tourists to support his economy, but with the war going on that may be a bit of a depressed market. He needs to play both sides to support his increasingly deteriorating economic situation. The EU has convinced Türkiye that it is not wanted in Europe unless it changes some basic aspects of it's society, which it is unwilling to do. Once that message was received and understood, Türkiye really had to look for a new "niche" in the world. This current straddle is an attempt to do that. Türkiye is in NATO for basically 1.5 reasons. Reason 1 is it's strategic location. It contains Russia's access to the Mediterranean Sea. That is basically "priceless" and got Türkiye into NATO despite the fact the Greeks hated them and they were (at the time of admission) not really a "military asset" to the alliance. The other 0.5 was that the Turks were staunchly anti-communist and had a long history of fighting Russia. They feared and hated a Godless, communist Russia much more than just about anything else. Unfortunately, this is no longer true.

It makes no sense that we let one country out of many dictate membership when it gets its nose in a snit. Seems like we need a better arrangement, but I guess I can say good luck on that.

NATO has always "made sense" only as an alliance of disparate nations, many of which didn't much like each other, who feared the USSR enough to swallow their doubts. Greece put up with Türkiye even though they periodically to this day shoot at each other. France (de Gaulle) pulled out of the "military" wing of NATO because he felt it constrained French policy too much. All the NATO war plans had two scenarios for may years. 1) France fights, 2) France doesn't fight. Made things real complicated for the FRG. The "problem" today is that Sweden now fears Russia enough to want to join NATO, while Türkiye fears Russia too little to swallow their (Erdoğan's) "doubts".

[Goose]

Do have any idea why Turkey continues to prevent Sweden from joining NATO?  I know there is religious event issue, but can't we make the guy an offer he can't refuse?

No, we can't. If you look back through the posts you will see that I have believed this problem would persist at least until well after the election, and possibly beyond that. This was before the "religious event" even happened. Erdoğan did and does receive significant political benefit in Türkiye for his stance. He needed every bit of that he could get to win a very close election. The problem is now that he can't really back away from that position or he will lose that support going into what will undoubtedly be a difficult economic period for Türkiye.

It is undoubtedly also true that he believes that Sweden can stop these demonstrations if they want to, and the fact they do not is a sign they do not respect him or his government. While a lot of that is simply that in Sweden, dissent is somewhat protected by law, there is a grain of truth in Erdoğan's perception. Sweden has tolerated the PKK operating inside their country. These people are not Swedish. They probably could have been deported. They were not, partly because there is sympathy for the Kurds in lots of the NATO countries. Erdoğan really doesn't like that and asks how the alliance can have members that don't respect each other's governments. While he does have a point there, I am pretty sure the US State Department doesn't hold his government in very high esteem either, IMO for good reason.

He seems half in Russia's camp anyway.

Not really. He needs Russian tourists to support his economy, but with the war going on that may be a bit of a depressed market. He needs to play both sides to support his increasingly deteriorating economic situation. The EU has convinced Türkiye that it is not wanted in Europe unless it changes some basic aspects of it's society, which it is unwilling to do. Once that message was received and understood, Türkiye really had to look for a new "niche" in the world. This current straddle is an attempt to do that. Türkiye is in NATO for basically 1.5 reasons. Reason 1 is it's strategic location. It contains Russia's access to the Mediterranean Sea. That is basically "priceless" and got Türkiye into NATO despite the fact the Greeks hated them and they were (at the time of admission) not really a "military asset" to the alliance. The other 0.5 was that the Turks were staunchly anti-communist and had a long history of fighting Russia. They feared and hated a Godless, communist Russia much more than just about anything else. Unfortunately, this is no longer true.

It makes no sense that we let one country out of many dictate membership when it gets its nose in a snit. Seems like we need a better arrangement, but I guess I can say good luck on that.

NATO has always "made sense" only as an alliance of disparate nations, many of which didn't much like each other, who feared the USSR enough to swallow their doubts. Greece put up with Türkiye even though they periodically to this day shoot at each other. France (de Gaulle) pulled out of the "military" wing of NATO because he felt it constrained French policy too much. All the NATO war plans had two scenarios for may years. 1) France fights, 2) France doesn't fight. Made things real complicated for the FRG. The "problem" today is that Sweden now fears Russia enough to want to join NATO, while Türkiye fears Russia too little to swallow their (Erdoğan's) "doubts".