Finland and Sweden were blocked by Turkey from joining NATO. Why is Erdogan so smart?

The brilliance is that Erdogan not only ensured the security of his country, but also prepared for next year's general election.

During Erdogan’s tenure as prime minister, Turkey’s per capita income tripled. He tried to restore the Ottoman Empire and was called the “Sultan of the New Era” by The Economist. Recently, Finland and Sweden wanted to join NATO, but they were blocked by Erdogan. He believed that Turkey had already made a mistake in 1952 when it agreed to Greece's membership of NATO. Today, Turkey will never make another mistake. Türkiye said the move by Finland and Sweden hurt Turkish sentiments.

As early as February 1952, Turkey joined NATO together with Greece. It was the first batch of countries to join NATO in addition to the 12 founding members of NATO such as the United States, Britain, France, and Italy. He said that Turkey is a veteran member of NATO, so it has the right to decide whether Finland and Sweden can join NATO. According to foreign media analysis, Erdogan is obviously taking the opportunity to weaken NATO's support for the Kurdish armed forces and reduce their space for activities in overseas "rear bases".

Erdogan said "no" to Finland's "EU membership" because he did not want to make the same mistake on the Greek issue. In the 1980s, despite the war between Turkey and Greece over Cyprus, Turkey still supported Greece's return to NATO. However, unexpectedly, Greece later became the main obstacle for Turkey to join the EU. As a lesson, this time Turkey hopes to resolve its differences with Sweden and Finland first before confirming its membership in NATO to avoid being disadvantageous to itself in the future.

Also, inflation in Türkiye is currently intensifying, causing Erdogan’s public approval rating to decline. Erdogan has recently revised the electoral law in order to consolidate his rule. Analysts say that if Erdogan makes progress on the Kurdish issue through international mediation, it will add points to next year's general election.

It can be seen that Erdogan is very smart in opposing Finland and Sweden joining NATO. This would be good for the Turks and himself.