Passage of arms sales from Finland to Turkey

An important step came from Finland, as far-right politician Rasmus Paludan’s burning of the Holy Quran near the Turkish embassy in Sweden made it difficult for Turkey to approve Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO membership.

The Finnish government officially lifted the arms embargo by approving the first arms sale to Turkey since 2019. This step was one of Turkey’s main demands for NATO membership.

The Finnish Ministry of Defense announced that the “embargo on exports of military equipment to Turkey”, which has been in force since 2019, has been lifted and a license for its sale has been granted. Defense Ministry adviser Riikka Pitkanen told AFP that the export license for the sale of armored steel to a Turkish company had been approved the day before.

Sweden lifted the arms embargo on Turkey in September. Following Turkey’s operation against PKK/YPG militants in Syria in 2019, some EU countries began to impose an arms embargo on Ankara.

GREEN LIGHT FROM FINLAND TO NATO MEMBERS WITHOUT SWEDEN

President Tayyip Erdogan said: “If Sweden cannot respect the religious beliefs of Muslims, they will not receive any support from us in NATO.” Subsequently, the tripartite mechanism meeting between Turkey, Sweden and Finland was canceled indefinitely.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, for his part, said that Finland should consider joining NATO without Sweden, giving the green light to this option.

DISCUSSION CREATED IN THE GOVERNMENT OF FINLAND

Helsinki’s latest move has drawn criticism from the coalition government led by Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

Li Andersson, leader of the coalition member Left Alliance party, said on Twitter: “The Left Alliance does not support the export of defense equipment to countries at war or violating human rights. We are of the opinion that Finland should not allow exports of armored steel to Turkey. This issue was not discussed within the government,” he said.