QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Thursday, 29 senators informed US President Joe Biden in a letter that the Congress will not support the F-16 sale if Turkey does not stop blocking Sweden and Finland’s entry into NATO.
The Congress cannot consider future support for Turkey, including the sale of F-16 fighter jets, until it completes ratification of the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland’s admission into NATO, the senators, most of them Democrats, said.
The two countries formally applied to join NATO in May 2022 prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but were met with huge rejection from Turkey.
Turkey has recently threatened not to support Sweden for NATO membership and accused it alongside Finland of failing to meet Turkey’s demands to fight “terrorism.”
Turkey has accused the two countries of harboring “terror” groups, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In November 2022, Sweden’s new center-right government said it would distance itself from several Kurdish groups. Tobias Billstrom, Sweden’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs, said Stockholm would change how it viewed the People’s Protection Units (YPG), and associated political group, the Democratic Union party (PYD). Turkey perceives YPG as the Syrian extension of the outlawed PKK.
In June 2022, Turkey was said to have lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden’s NATO bid before a NATO summit in Madrid. However, Turkey’s Minister of Justice, Bekir Bozdag, said part of the deal is that his country will seek the extradition of 33 alleged Kurdish fighters and suspects in the failed military coup of 2016 from Sweden and Finland.
In the letter to the US president, the 29 Democratic and Republican senators said the two Nordic countries were making “full and good faith efforts” to meet the conditions for NATO membership that Turkey asked, even though Ankara says Sweden needs to do more.
“Once the NATO accession protocols are ratified by Türkiye, Congress can consider the sale of F-16 fighter jets. A failure to do so, however, would call into question this pending sale,” the senators wrote.
On January 16, the Biden administration informally notified the Congress of its intention to sell 40 new F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, along with 80 upgrade kits to modernize the Turkish Air Force’s existing F-16 fleet.
Congressional leaders who object to the sale cite Turkey’s human rights violations, intimidation of its neighbors and obstruction of Sweden and Finland’s to join NATO. The acquisition by Turkey of the Russian S-400 missile defense system adds more troubles to the sale.
In late January, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey may approve only Finland’s application for NATO membership. However, Finland asserted its strong wish to join the NATO together with Sweden.
“Our strong wish is still to join NATO together with Sweden,” Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pekka Haavisto said, “We have underlined to all our future NATO partners, including Hungary and Turkey [who have yet to sign off] that Finnish and Swedish security go together.”
Of NATO’s 30 members, only Turkey and Hungary have yet to ratify the Nordic countries’ memberships.
Turkey requested in October 2021 to buy 40 Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes.
In a visit to Washington last month, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu said the NATO issue should not be a precondition for the sale and urged the Biden administration to persuade Congress to drop its objection.
While the Congress can block foreign arms sales, it has not previously mustered the two-thirds majorities in both chambers required to overcome a presidential veto.