TURKEY SUMMONS NINE WESTERN AMBASSADORS OVER SECURITY ALERTS
Turkey summoned ambassadors of nine Western countries including the United States and Sweden on Thursday to criticize their decisions to temporarily shut diplomatic missions and issue security alerts following Koran-burning incidents in Europe, Reuters reports.
The envoys of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Britain were also summoned, according to foreign ministry sources in Ankara.
Over the last two weeks, far-right activists burned copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, acts that prompted Turkey to halt negotiations meant to lift its objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
The European countries have denounced the incidents but some say they cannot prevent them because of free speech rules.
Over the last week, France, Germany, Italy and the United States were among those issuing warnings to their citizens of an increased risk of attacks in Turkey, particularly against diplomatic missions and non-Muslim places of worship.
Germany, France and the Netherlands were among countries that temporarily closed diplomatic missions in Turkey for security reasons this week. Some cited central Istanbul areas of high concern but did not provide the source of the information.
"Such simultaneous activities do not constitute a proportional and commonsense approach and...only serve the covert agenda of terrorist organizations," said a foreign ministry source who asked not to be further identified.
The source added that the security of all diplomatic missions is ensured in accordance with international conventions and "allies should cooperate with" Turkish authorities.
The interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, said on Twitter the embassies were waging "a new psychological war" against Turkey.
SENATORS CALL ON BIDEN TO DELAY F-16 JET SALE TO TURKEY
A bipartisan group of senators urged President Joe Biden to delay the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey until Turkey agrees to allow Sweden and Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), CNN reports.
The letter comes at a time when Sweden and Finland are waiting for Turkey to approve their admission to NATO, of which Turkey is a member. Congressional sources previously told CNN that the Biden administration was preparing to ask lawmakers to approve the sale of F-16s to Turkey, which would be among the largest arms sales in years.
The group of 27 senators wrote in their letter on Thursday, however, that Congress “cannot consider future support for [Turkey],” including the sale of the F-16 jets, until Turkey “completes ratification of the accession protocols.”
“Failure to ratify the protocols or present a timeline for ratification threatens the Alliance’s unity at a key moment in history, as Russia continues its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” the letter says. “A productive and mutually beneficial bilateral security relationship with [Turkey] is in the interest of the United States, and we are awaiting the government’s ratification of the NATO accession protocols for Sweden and Finland.”
Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO last spring, just months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the time that he would reject the effort, accusing the two countries of being “like guesthouses for terror organizations.”
Those tensions have continued. Just last week, Turkey called for a meeting between the three countries to be postponed after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said the Swedish government was complicit in the burning of the Quran during a protest in Stockholm. A Turkish state news agency reported that the meeting was canceled due to an “unhealthy political environment.”
On Thursday, the lawmakers commended Turkey for being a “valuable NATO ally as Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine continues,” but said its continued blocking of Sweden and Finland joining NATO is working against it.
The US-Turkey relationship “has been shadowed by continued delays in ratification for NATO enlargement,” the letter says, “and those delays pose a risk to the security of the alliance, to Europe and to the international world order that Vladimir Putin continues to threaten.”
EU-UKRAINE SUMMIT, 3 FEBRUARY 2023
Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, will meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President, in Kyiv for the 24th summit between the European Union and Ukraine.
This is the first EU-Ukraine summit since the start of the Russian aggression, and also since the European Council granted Ukraine the status of candidate country.
The leaders will discuss:
Ukraine’s European path and the accession process
the EU’s response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine
Ukraine’s initiatives for just peace and accountability
cooperation on issues of reconstruction and relief and in the areas of energy and connectivity
global food security
The leaders are expected to issue a joint statement at the end of the summit.
Ukraine applied for EU membership in February 2022 and was granted EU candidate status in June 2022.
The EU will decide on further steps once Ukraine fulfils the conditions outlined in the European Commission’s opinion on its EU membership application.
The Commission will report on Ukraine’s fulfilment of the conditions as part of its regular enlargement package in 2023. Without prejudice to this comprehensive regular reporting, an update by the Commission is expected in spring 2023.
SERBIA DOES NOT INTEND TO JOIN NATO: VUCIC
Serbia does not plan to join NATO and will stick to its military neutrality, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told a parliament meeting.
Serbia has been a candidate to join its single-biggest trade partner and investor, the European Union, since 2012. It is militarily neutral but maintains ties with NATO and has bought weapons from its member states.
In the Balkans, Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina are the only countries that have not joined NATO.
“This morning, I listened to nonsensical statements by fake patriots who said we have been leading Serbia toward Atlantic integration,” Russian state news agency TASS quoted Vucic as saying on Thursday.
“We are not. We will stick to military neutrality and, unlike those who destroyed our army, we are building an army of our own,” he said.
War erupted in 1998-99 in Kosovo, then a Serbian province, when separatist ethnic Albanians launched a rebellion against Serbia’s rule, and Belgrade responded with a brutal crackdown. About 13,000 people died, mostly ethnic Albanians. Some 1,600 people are still missing.
