Der Spiegel: When Turkey was afraid of Stalin and asked to join NATO

THE negative attitude of its chairman Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoganregarding its integration Finland and Sweden in the NATO was at the center of geopolitical developments with the world’s most important leaders expressing their belief that the “golden section” would be found to change its mind and finally accept them.

In fact, today (21/5), it is expected to have and conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenbergin order to address the “Turkish concerns” and their disagreement with the enlargement of the North Atlantic Alliance.

And while giving and receiving interpretations of what he may want to achieve, the German magazine Der Spiegel chose to recall that “history repeats itself…”. Because, in 1952, Turkey eagerly wanted to become a member of the Alliance, citing the expansionist disposition of Joseph Stalin and the then Soviet Union as the reason..

“Last February, Turkey celebrated an important anniversary: ​​70 years ago it joined NATO, three years before Germany. It was a great success of international politics, after long negotiations and against the initial resistance of many NATO members. “For a long time, Turkey reciprocated the trust and, even to the riots in Cyprus in the 1960s, was considered a credible ally of the United States and a model student in NATO.”

He goes on to emphasize that “Historically, Ankara should have understood Sweden and Finland very well. “Why did Turkey once find itself under the enormous threat of aggressive Soviet foreign policy?”.

There is also a reference to his statement that his country will not make the same mistake again as it did with Greece. “Der Spiegel”, however, notes that then in the early 1950s with the world having fresh memories of World War II, the Turkish position for the accession of both countries was: “Greece and Turkey are more valuable to NATO than Luxembourg, Denmark or the Netherlands”.