On Finland’s Memorandum with Turkey

“Finns should decide their own fate. Their pact with Turkey signals the opposite.”

In May, I wrote a piece for Merion West titled “Why the Left Is Accepting Finnish NATO Membership.” In it, I argued that Finns should be able to decide their own fate and opt for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership, free from criticism from Western leftists. The text was a response to online commentary suggesting that NATO membership should be condemned by the Left at all costs. However, the signing of a “memorandum of understanding” this week by the Presidents of Finland, Sweden and Turkey signals that NATO membership is contrary to the principles of self-determination in Finland or Sweden. The capitulation of Finland and Sweden to Turkey’s demands that the Kurdish organizations Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Democratic Union Party (PYD), People’s Protection Units (YPG), and Fethullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO) should be condemned and recognized as terrorists, with potential support being withheld from them, immediately affects the well-being of Kurds residing in those territories.

My initial argument last month was that Finland (where I have resided for five years) has a right to seek NATO membership insofar as it is deemed necessary to stave off Russian imperialism. I further asserted that geographical proximity to Russia called for a tolerance of NATO from parts of the Finnish Left, which in no way signals a condoning of Western imperialism.

History is, after all, full of actors who are put in the position of collaborating with people they disagree with or openly oppose. The failure of the Western Left to appreciate this predicament comes across from afar as both ignorant and preaching (especially considering the fact that many critics of Finland and Sweden’s planned NATO ascendancy speak from NATO member states, where the Left is generally conspicuously uncritical of NATO on the whole). However, my argument supposed some degree of autonomy within NATO for Finland and Sweden. As it stands, both countries have given the de facto green flag to Turkish hostilities against the Kurds in Turkey and Syria, ahead of even joining NATO as full members. The memorandum also promised the relaxing of a discretionary arms embargo on Turkey and agreed to hear Turkey’s pending extradition requests of alleged terrorists. In light of such a turn, it is doubtful that these models of Nordic welfarism will be able to counter the neoliberal expansionist mentality of NATO.