The absurdity of having Turkey as part of an alliance of Western states is on abundant display in its reaction to Sweden’s bid to join NATO. Erdogan insists that Sweden must discard the freedom of expression that has been a hallmark of Western free societies, and adopt Sharia blasphemy laws prohibiting desecration of the Qur’an. Turkey should be expelled from NATO, but instead, Sweden will likely jettison the freedom of expression, and other Western states, increasingly dominated by the authoritarian Left, will follow suit.
“Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s NATO bid depends on Stockholm,” Mehr News Agency, August 21, 2023:
TEHRAN, Aug. 21 (MNA) – The decision on Sweden’s NATO membership will be made by the Turkish parliament, which monitors Stockholm’s actions, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters on Monday.
“The process of sending Sweden’s NATO membership protocol to the parliament and the process of its approval is directly related to Sweden’s fulfillment of its obligations. The decision will have to be made by the parliament, how much it will be discussed in commissions, how long this process will take, we do not know. First of all, Sweden has to control the streets of Stockholm. If they [the Swedish authorities] do not do this, if the attacks on our holy shrine (the Qur’an) continue, then they should not be offended [that Turkey does not approve its NATO bid],” Russian TASS news agency quoted Erdogan as saying….
Biggles says
Absurdity yes, until you look at the map and find Incirlik Airbase in the South-East of the country. This airbase is equipped with all available arms and extremely strategically situated in the Middle East. So, hey, they have power, and therefore it would unfortunately be very difficult to kick Turkey out of NATO.
Jack Reynolds says
OK, let me see if I got this right.
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Turkey the country reswponsible for the genocide of 2 MILLION Christians a century ago is saying that Sweden cannot join NATO because some Muslim living there said that their Qur’an is a piece of crap.
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DID I GET THAT RIGHT ??? … There’s a simple solution to this.
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Hide says
Who the bloody hell is fooling who. What the hell is sharia law got to do with the western world.
We don’t need sharia law in a Christian country.
It’s about time, we stopped giving Christian aid to any Muslim country. That’s why Muslim people don’t make anything only trouble.
Tell me one Muslim country that’s not at war with one another.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I know that this tinpot wannabe Ottoman caliph can’t tell the difference, but Sweden a.k.a. the Swedish government ain’t the one desecrating the qur’an. Individual citizens/residents are!
James Lincoln says
True, Infidel.
But I think that Erdogan wants to hold the Swedish government responsible for the actions of its citizens.
somehistory says
The turkey dictator wants Sweden to eliminate the freedom to speak the Truth about anything to do with islam. After all, he has done that in turkey, has he not?
James Lincoln says
Yes, somehistory.
Goofy says
It is a very difficult decision for the Swedes to make. After all, how can a country which has been neutral for the last couple of hundred years not be desperate to join NATO, which is an alliance which has produced only one benefit during its existence, and that was to be a deterrent during the cold war with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries.
After that NATO has functioned exclusively in the interest of the US, often as an enabler of illegal warfare like in Libya and Serbia.
Most recently it is about Ukraine, which the US and NATO have turned into a corporatist fascist hellhole. This illegal war is also the basis for the US economic warfare on the EU, which is in a dire self imposed energy crisis caused by the US anti Russia sanctions..
In addition NATO serves as a mean of pressurising its members to buy useless American weapons to fund the corporatist fascist takeover of the world which we used to know as free..
The US itself is no longer a nation of laws.
So would Sweden be willing to give up its democratic freedoms to become member of such a swell organisation? Of course!
Transmaster says
Absurd you say, What you are saying is just what Putin wants. He has been trying to peel off Turkey from NATO since he came into power. Turkey is the gatekeeper to the Black Sea. What should be done is a concerted effort to remove Erdogan from power. Their are a number of Turkish Generals living in exile in Greece and elsewhere in the EU that with western backing would be happy give Erdogan a terminal case of lead poisoning.
What the US needs to do is recognize Kurdistan as a sovereign country. Build a large military facility there and that would end Turkey’s blackmail over NATO bases. A Sovereign Kurdistan would probably give Erdogan a heart attack, and the Iran would have a Great Satan crisis.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Turkey’s problem is not Erdogan. Turkey’s problem is that it’s the country of Turks, who now have neo-Ottoman aspirations – both to re-unite w/ their cousins across the Caspian Sea, and to reassert their Ottoman-era leadership of islam, when they were the caliphate & controlled Mecca & Medina. Russia doesn’t have to peel off Turkey from NATO: Turkey has never been a part of NATO, definitely not after 1991.
Solution to all this is to expel Turkey from NATO and strengthening its regional rivals – Greece, Armenia & Cyprus
GreekEmpress says
So true!
He’ll keep swamping Sweden with migrants until they cave to his demands, imo
OLD GUY says
Right on target.
FYI says
A point about the koran most likely to be lost on the muslims.;allah;s astonishing LACK OF OMNISCIENCE.
In koran 5:116 alllah reveals the fact that not only does he completely get the Doctrine of the Trinity wrong but he does not actually understand it !…and laughably accuses Jesus of putting His mother Mary in the Trinity
“O Jesus son of Mary !Didst thou say unto mankind”Take me and my mother for twp gods beside alalh?
Where does allah get Mary from?
When did Jesus insist Mary be part of the Trinity?
What sense does it make?None
Note too that ln allah’s EPIC AND ETERNALLY wrong Theology fail ,that there is no room in allah’s ‘trinity’ of [allah,Jesus.Mary}for the Holy Spirit which explains WHY islam has no prophecy source.
allah who is “the knower of all things hidden” koran 5:110 doesn’t know or understand Christian Theology.
allah the omniscient is curiously lacking in omniscience.
It is not just what is written in the koran or the well known scientific and logical mistakes;it is also what is missing and what allah simply does not understand..
allah claims he authored the Torah and gave it o Moses{koran 2:87} but he actually MISSED the 2 chief commandments{the whole of the Law} and the Golden Rule{the meaning of the Law}which would have to be in in islam if allah really did inspire the Torah.
Note that Jesus explains and knows the Torah perfectly:allah hasn’t a clue!
So clearly Jesus knows more than allah.allah’s astonishng lack of omniscience and epic misunderstanding of Theology and ignorance the Torah reveal allah to be a fraud with a suspiciously human mind.
There is hardly any point discussing it with islamic ‘scholars’ but there is an independent way muslims can check this out.
By following allah’s advice in koran 10:94 and by asking the Bible people to verify.Of course muslims might then see that in Biblical prophecy, islam has no future and is going extinct and the koran is demonstrably false.
davidafoot says
The manual of terrorism and misogyny of the Islamic invaders of Europe is in contraposition with the defence of the West which is given by NATO!
Turkey shouldn’t be allowed to impose its own religious conditions as a price for joining NATO.
NATO and Islam should be in the best of cases unrelated or more like very opposed in practice if we go by our history and the attacks by Islam on the West.
If NATO had existed in the VIII century definitively Turkey wouldn’t have been a member!