Turkey lifts its block on letting Sweden and Finland join NATO

AS A YOUNG man Recep Tayyip Erdogan played semi-professional football. As Turkey’s president, he has no qualms about committing professional fouls to get his way in international politics. His move last month to trip up Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO, at a time of grave threat from Russia, was as startling as it was effective. On June 28th, as NATO’s leaders gathered in Madrid for a summit, Mr Erdogan collected his prize for agreeing to let them in, cheered by fellow leaders. “Fantastic news as we kick off the NATO summit,” tweeted Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister.

In a joint memorandum with Turkey, the two Nordic countries pledged their “unwavering solidarity and co-operation in the fight against terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations”. They also promised to abjure the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a radical Kurdish group that has fought decades of insurgency against Turkey, and the closely related Kurdish militia in Syria, the People’s Protection Units (YPG). This seems to be more than words. They agreed to lift their arms embargo against Turkey, clamp down on the financing of the PKK, “address” Turkey’s requests for the extradition and deportation of Kurdish activists, and amend laws to facilitate the extradition of terrorism suspects. In return, Turkey would support their application to join the alliance.