Erdoğan blocks Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland - Financial Times

Turkey has blocked Nato’s initial decision to process requests by Finland and Sweden to join the military alliance, throwing into doubt the hopes for a quick accession of the two Nordic countries.

Nato ambassadors met on Wednesday with the aim of opening accession talks on the same day that Finland and Sweden submitted their applications but Ankara’s opposition stopped any vote, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The move raises doubt that Nato will be able to approve the first stage of Finland’s and Sweden’s applications within one or two weeks, as secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg indicated. It also sets the stage for several days of intense diplomacy between the US, Turkey, Finland and Sweden over the issue.

A Turkish official confirmed that Ankara had put the brakes on the process, but insisted that Turkey was not ruling out the prospect of Sweden and Finland joining.

“We’re not saying they can’t be Nato members,” the official said. “Just that we need to be on the same wavelength, the same page, about the threat that we’re facing.”

The official added: “We want to reach an agreement . . . The sooner we can reach an agreement, the sooner the membership discussions can start.”

All 30 existing members of Nato have to ratify Finland’s and Sweden’s applications but that process only starts once the defence alliance issues an accession protocol and formally invites the two countries to join.

Nato declined to comment, other than to repeat Stoltenberg’s remarks that “the security interest of all allies have to be taken into account [and] we are determined to work through all issues and reach a rapid conclusion”.

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attacked western allies for failing to respect Ankara’s “sensitivity” on terrorism and accused the latest Nato applicants of refusing to extradite 30 people accused of terrorism-related charges in his country.

“We asked for 30 terrorists. They said: ‘we are not giving them’,” he said in a speech to parliament. “You won’t hand over terrorists but you want to join Nato. We cannot say yes to a security organisation that is devoid of security.”

Erdoğan, who has the power to veto the Nordic countries’ admission to Nato, said that Nato members should “understand, respect and support” Turkey’s sensitivities about these groups, but added: “None of our allies has shown the respect that we expected to our sensitivity.”

The momentous decision by Helsinki and Stockholm to pursue membership of the alliance comes after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, a non-Nato member that shares a border with Russia, upturned decades of security thinking.

But Erdoğan’s opposition to their admission cast a shadow over what Nato leaders sought to cast as a historic moment for the alliance.

“This is a good day at a critical moment for our security,” Stoltenberg said on Wednesday as the Finnish and Swedish ambassadors handed in their requests at a ceremony at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels.

Stoltenberg pledged that Nato was “determined to work through all issues and reach rapid conclusions”, adding: “All allies agree on the importance of Nato enlargement. We all agree that we must stand together, and we all agree that this is a historic moment that we all must seize.”

Finland’s president Sauli Niinistö and Sweden’s prime minister Magdalena Andersson will visit US president Joe Biden on Thursday in an attempt to win his backing for rapid ratification and attempt to overcome the Turkish opposition. Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, will meet US secretary of state Antony Blinken in New York on Wednesday.

Niinistö said: “If we have a quick process there, it helps the whole process and timetable.”

Turkey, a Nato member since 1952, is aggrieved by what it sees as Sweden’s failure to crack down on members of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), a militia that has waged an armed struggle against the Turkish state since the 1980s. It has also accused Stockholm of harbouring exiled members of the Gulen movement, a secretive Islamic sect that Ankara blames for a violent coup attempt that rocked Turkey in 2016.

Turkey’s pro-government newspaper Sabah on Wednesday set out a list of what it said were Ankara’s 10 demands of the Nordic countries. They included a demand to limit contacts with and financing of PKK and its affiliate in Syria, as well as a clampdown on Stockholm-based media linked to Gulen.

Finland and Sweden have been eager to gain security assurances, with the UK, Norway, Denmark and Iceland agreeing to come to their aid if they were attacked before becoming members of Nato and being subject to its collective defence pledge.

Niinistö said during a state visit to Sweden on Tuesday that the countries had been encouraged by the mild reaction by Putin and his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov to their Nato applications, with both Russian officials appearing to suggest Moscow would tolerate Finland and Sweden joining the alliance.

“Maybe Russia doesn’t want to tell its people that we have new problems,” said Niinistö.

Finnish and Swedish membership of the alliance would more than double Nato’s borders with Russia, but would make it easier for it to defend the three Baltic states, its most vulnerable point.

The Baltic countries have welcomed the membership requests, but stressed that Nato needed to agree to increase their own security at a Madrid summit in June.

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2022-05-18 13:11:56Z
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Turkey's Erdoğan plays hard ball over Nordics' Nato bid - Financial Times

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s decision to press ahead with his opposition to Sweden and Finland’s bids to join Nato has thrown a spanner in the works of a plan to rapidly admit the Nordic countries to the western military alliance.

Turkish officials had spent the weekend playing down the prospect that Ankara, a Nato member since 1952, would scupper their entry by vetoing it — a view that had been echoed by western officials. But the Turkish president on Monday described Sweden and Finland as “incubators” for terrorist groups and told their foreign ministers not to bother with a planned visit to his country in the days ahead.

“They are coming to convince us. I’m sorry, but don’t waste your time,” he told a press conference on Monday night. “It’s not possible to say yes to this.”

The question now is what Erdoğan hopes to gain from his stance. Turkey had been enjoying improved relations with some western capitals since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the unpredictable president, who is struggling with a troubled economy ahead of elections due before June next year, also has a record of playing hard ball with the west. Some argue he is seeking to use his leverage to extract concessions from Sweden and the US that could be brandished as a political triumph at home.

Luxembourg’s foreign minister Jean Asselborn told German radio station Deutschlandfunk on Tuesday that Erdoğan was “pushing up the price” for the entry of the Nordic nations.

Ankara sees Sweden, rather than Finland, as the main problem — a situation that has irked politicians in Helsinki, officials say. Finnish officials had assiduously courted the existing Nato members to ensure a smooth accession for months. “I’m not sure the Swedes have been so dedicated,” said one Finnish official.

Turkey may push for Sweden to extradite alleged members of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK). The militia, which is classified as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and Sweden as well as the EU and the US, has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state for the past 40 years and is viewed by the majority of the Turkish public as an existential threat. The state-run Anadolu news agency said Sweden had failed to respond to requests to send 11 alleged PKK members to stand trial on terror charges in Turkey in the past five years.

Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has indicated he wants Sweden and Finland to lift arms embargoes that they, along with some other countries, imposed on Turkey in 2019 when Erdoğan ordered his military to attack PKK-linked Kurdish militias in Syria. Turkish officials are also angry that top Swedish officials, including the defence minister, have held discussions with senior figures from a Syrian Kurdish militia that has close links to the PKK.

But Sweden’s Social Democrat government will find it hard to compromise as it is facing tough parliamentary elections in September and has already offended the left of its party and the ex-communists by signing up to Nato. The country has a significant Kurdish diaspora and there is widespread sympathy for the Kurdish cause.

“I worry that there isn’t all that much wiggle room,” said Paul Levin, director of Stockholm University’s Institute for Turkish Studies. “Sweden has [long] been a country that has prided itself on independence and neutrality and being the moral conscience of the world, so to speak. We stand up for equality and human rights, gender equality. It was only possible for the [ruling] Social Democrats to shift to support Nato membership because they believed — and reassured their followers — that they would not have to abandon this critical role.”

Çavuşoğlu is due to meet his US counterpart Antony Blinken in New York on Wednesday and may seek to bargain with the US over Turkish support for Nato expansion.

Asselborn said that Turkey may want to pressure the US to reverse a decision to push Turkey out of its F-35 fighter jet programme after it bought a Russian missile system and to approve Ankara’s request for help with modernising its air force by allowing it to buy new F-16 aircraft.

But while President Joe Biden’s administration has previously expressed support for Turkey’s request to buy new F-16s as well as F-16 modernisation kits, the proposal requires the approval of a sceptical Congress.

Appearing to be an unreliable Nato ally “will not win Erdoğan any fans” on Capitol Hill, according to Emre Peker, Europe director at the consultancy Eurasia Group. Peker believes the Turkish leader will ultimately back down after securing some “symbolic and real” progress from the Nordic countries that he can use to “score political points at home”. The Finnish president and Swedish prime minister are due to meet Biden at the White House on Thursday.

Nato officials say the alliance is likely to complete the first stage of Finland and Sweden’s application process within a week or two, allowing them to join a summit in Madrid as prospective members in June. “It’s a perfect photo opportunity to welcome them,” said one diplomat from a Nato country. The Finnish and Swedish leaders hope to speak to Erdoğan on the phone in the coming days, and Finnish president Sauli Niinistö said he was optimistic that the impasse could be overcome “with constructive talks”.

But some warn that Erdoğan’s threat to block the countries’ membership should be taken seriously. “I think the basic assumption that he will cave is laughable,” said Aaron Stein, director of the Middle East programme at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute. He said western officials had consistently underestimated the gravity of threats made by the Turkish president.

“I honestly don’t know how this will go,” he said. “I can make the argument that he’ll take something [as a peace offering] before the Madrid summit. And I can also see him saying, fuck you all.”

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2022-05-18 04:00:29Z
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Buffalo shooting: President Biden urges all Americans to reject 'poison' of white supremacy - Sky News

Joe Biden has called on all Americans to reject the "poison" of white supremacy following a "racially-motivated" mass shooting at a US supermarket.

The US president and the first lady have paid their respects at a makeshift memorial after the deadly attack in and around the store in the city of Buffalo.

Mr Biden and his wife Jill met families of the 10 victims who were all black, as well as first responders and local officials.

The couple laid a bouquet of flowers at the memorial of blossoms, candles and messages of condolence, outside the Tops store in New York state.

Three other people were injured in last Saturday's massacre, which police say was "racially motivated".

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In a speech in Buffalo, Mr Biden condemned the "poison" of white supremacy, saying: "In America, evil will not win, I promise you. Hate will not prevail, white supremacy will not have the last word."

He added: "Now is the time for the people of all races, from every background, to speak up as a majority in America and reject white supremacy."

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The president also referred to mass shootings in recent years in Charleston in South Carolina, El Paso in Texas, Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, as well as last week in Dallas.

"These actions we've seen in these hate-filled attacks represent the views of a hateful minority. We can't allow them to distort America, the real America. We can't allow them to destroy the soul of the nation."

Image: Mr Biden visits the scene of the Buffalo supermarket shooting. Pic: AP

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'Hero' security guard and shoppers among 10 victims named
Gunman live-streamed 'racially-motivated' mass shooting

On Saturday, a young man armed with an assault rifle targeted black people in the deadliest racist attack in the US since Mr Biden took office in 2021.

Authorities are calling the shooting an act of "violent extremism" motivated by racial hatred.

Mr Biden said the gunman was fuelled by "hate that through the media and politics, the internet has radicalised angry alienated, lost and isolated individuals into falsely believing that they will be replaced… by people who don't look like them".

Replacement theory is a racist ideology that alleges white people are being intentionally "replaced" through immigration.

Image: Payton Gendron has pleaded not guilty to the Buffalo killings

Suspected white supremacist Payton Gendron, 18, was arrested at the supermarket and charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

Before the shooting, Gendron is reported to have posted an online diatribe full of racism and antisemitism.

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2022-05-17 18:44:29Z
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'It's like the devil came to town': Buffalo grieves after America's latest racist attack - Financial Times

Dezzelynn Brown was standing behind a strand of police tape on Riley Street in Buffalo, gazing at an orange cone in a supermarket parking lot that marked the spot where her daughter Roberta became the first victim in America’s latest racially motivated mass shooting. Brown occasionally consulted the screen on her phone, which showed a woman — captured by the shooter’s camera — at the moment of impact.

“That’s my daughter. There’s smoke coming out of her head,” Brown said, dazed.

At a fire station a block away, Buffalo’s mayor, police commissioner and other officials were attempting on Monday evening to process what had transpired on Saturday afternoon, when 18-year-old Payton Gendron allegedly set upon the Tops Friendly Market in the predominantly African-American East Side neighbourhood and shot 13 people, killing 10 — eight of them black.

Gendron had driven from his parents’ home, 200 miles away, and was dressed in body armour and carrying an assault rifle with a racial epithet painted on its barrel, according to officials. They said he had plans for worse carnage but was cornered by police and surrendered.

A rambling online manifesto allegedly authored by Gendron cited, among other motivations, the “great replacement” — a white supremacist conspiracy theory that non-whites are being ushered into America to overwhelm white voters and seize political power.

Buffalo mayor Byron Brown, centre, blamed racism and hatred for the killings © Joshua Bessex/AP

“I blame the shooter. I blame racism. I blame hatred,” Byron Brown, the city’s mayor, told reporters. He then reflected on America’s overabundance of guns, concluding: “I don’t know if anyone is safe.”

Buffalo now finds itself among the ranks of Charleston, El Paso, Pittsburgh and other recent scenes of extremist, rightwing mass murder. Saturday’s shooting comes nearly two years after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis exploded the nation’s status quo on race relations, prompting both reckonings and counter-reactions. It will give fresh impetus to those forces, as well as parallel debates about gun control, hate crime legislation, social media and more.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the community on Tuesday, meeting families of the victims, first responders and local officials and laying flowers at a makeshift memorial. They found a neighbourhood still in shock, grieving friends and neighbours, and people reaching more for the spiritual than the political as they try to make sense of the events.

“This is a nice neighbourhood. Nobody bothers anybody,” said Charbel Mansour, who used to deliver for Amazon in the area and sometimes took breaks in the supermarket parking lot. He kept shaking his head in disbelief that someone could drive such a distance to murder innocents.

“I’ve never seen such evil in my life,” a woman consoling Dezzelynn Brown declared. “It’s like the devil came to town.”

Mourners light candles at a makeshift memorial outside the Tops store where 10 people were gunned down © Scott Olson/Getty Images

In Conklin, Gendron’s hometown, residents seemed equally mystified. The town of 5,000 is set amid rolling hills alongside the Susquehanna river, near the Pennsylvania border. It is semi-rural but not obviously deprived. As Buffalo’s East Side is defined by Jefferson Avenue, Conklin runs along a two-lane highway.

The Gendrons’ two-storey home is perched in a cul-de-sac above the town. It features a porch swing, a “Welcome” flag and a sweeping green lawn. The only sound on a recent afternoon was birdsong. Residents almost uniformly described the family as “nice” or “very, very nice”.

“He was a great kid. I never had any problem with him,” said the manager of the Reliable Market grocer, where Gendron worked for three months this year. Outside, a handwritten sign read: “Prayers for the people of Buffalo. Prayers for the people of Conklin. UNITED in our Sorrow.” At the nearby regional high school, from which Gendron recently graduated, the flag flew at half-mast.

Cheri Panko, who walks her dogs in Conklin, described the town — which is 90 per cent white, according to the most recent census — as a peaceful enclave that felt removed from the tumult of America’s polarised politics and culture wars.

“We weren’t really swept up in it,” she said, as her dogs played. “A friend of mine called me. They knew the parents and just couldn’t believe this would happen. They’re nice people.”

Journalists outside the Conklin home of Payton Gendron, the alleged perpetrator of the Buffalo attack © Angus Mordant/Reuters

To experts such as Peter Simi, a professor at Chapman University in California, who studies rightwing extremists, Gendron’s case fits into a recognisable and longstanding pattern: It is one of seemingly lone wolf assailants who have been radicalised and provoked by a wider white supremacist network. Those networks once gathered in person but have long since gone underground and online.

“Each one is a piece of the puzzle in terms of the strategy,” Simi said. “It’s a network of violence that each time it occurs encourages more to follow.”

While police were still scouring social media and collecting evidence, there were signs that Gendron had been inspired by previous white supremacist mass murderers. Elements of his manifesto closely resembled those of Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019. Like Tarrant, Gendron also wore a camera to live-stream his attack.

He was hospitalised for a mental evaluation last year after threatening to commit violence at his school, according to police.

More details are likely to emerge as the investigation proceeds. In the meantime, people in Buffalo — and Conklin — will be grieving and searching for explanations.

Tina Jones, 62, has lived in Buffalo’s East Side for almost 30 years and worked at a bar around the corner from Tops before she retired. She was walking to the store with her two granddaughters on Saturday afternoon but decided to first go to the laundromat. “God kept me going straight,” she said.

Two of her friends perished: Ruth Whitfield, 86, the mother of the city’s former fire commissioner, and Deacon Heyward Patterson, 67, who Jones knew from church. He would give people rides home from the supermarket if they could not afford a taxi, she recalled. “He was a good guy.”

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2022-05-17 15:14:58Z
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Ukraine war: Russia claims 265 Ukrainian soldiers 'surrender' at Mariupol steelworks - Sky News

Russia has claimed more than 250 Ukrainian fighters who were holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have surrendered.

"Over the past 24 hours, 265 militants have laid down their arms and surrendered, including 51 seriously wounded," its defence ministry said on Tuesday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Putin had guaranteed the Ukrainian fighters would be treated "in accordance with international standards".

Extraordinary 'damning' verdict of war shown on Russian TV | Ukraine live

It comes after Ukraine's military said it was working to evacuate all remaining troops from their last stronghold in the besieged port city.

Ukraine's deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, earlier said those who needed medical treatment were taken to a hospital in the Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk, about 30 miles east of Mariupol.

Others were being taken to Olenivka, about 55 miles north, through humanitarian corridors, she said, adding that they would be exchanged with Russian military prisoners before returning home.

For weeks, the soldiers were the last remaining pocket of resistance against the Russian advance in Mariupol, a strategically-important city in southern Ukraine.

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Over 250 Ukrainian soldiers leave Azovstal

Ms Malyar said: "Thanks to the defenders of Mariupol, Ukraine gained critically important time, and they fulfilled all their tasks. But it is impossible to unblock Azovstal by military means."

"We are working to save people who are still in Azovstal," she added, without saying how many people remained.

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy said on Monday night: "Thanks to the actions of the Ukrainian military, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, intelligence, as well as the negotiating team, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN, we hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys.

"There are severely wounded ones among them - they're receiving care.

"I want to emphasise that Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive. This is our principle. I think that every adequate person will understand these words."

Other key developments:
• Russia claims one of its missiles hit a US and European arms shipment near the Lviv region
• Finnish parliament approves NATO membership bid 188 votes to 8
• Putin appears to row back, saying Moscow does not see Finnish and Swedish membership as a direct threat in itself
• Turkey's president objects to Sweden and Finland joining over alleged support of Kurdish militants and other groups
• Russia's foreign ministry says attempts by the West and G7 to isolate Moscow has worsened global food shortages
• Russia has shelled the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk in the Donbas region, killing at least 10 people, according to the governor of the Luhansk region

Image: Day 83 of the war in Ukraine

On Monday, Russia announced an agreement for the injured Ukrainian soldiers to leave the steel plant for treatment in a town held by pro-Moscow separatists.

Later last night, five buses were seen leaving the steel plant with soldiers inside.

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on Facebook: "The supreme military command ordered the commanders of the units stationed at Azovstal to save the lives of the personnel.

"Efforts to rescue defenders who remain on the territory of Azovstal continue."

Image: Finland's parliament has voted overwhelmingly to support a bid to join NATO

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The pounding of Azovstal - pictures that tell a thousand words

At one point it was thought there were a few thousand Ukrainian troops in the steelworks, along with a few hundred civilians, as Russian soldiers closed in.

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The pounding of Azovstal - pictures that tell a thousand words

The Azov Regiment said that its troops in Mariupol held out for 82 days, buying time for the rest of Ukraine to fight Russian forces and secure Western weapons.

For much of that time, the soldiers in Mariupol - along with the remaining civilians - faced severe shortages of food, water, electricity, ammunition, and medicine.

Ukraine says tens of thousands of people have been killed in Mariupol, with much of the city lying in ruins.

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2022-05-17 11:48:45Z
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We're no match for Ukrainian grit and firepower, says analyst on Russian state TV - The Times

President Putin’s invading forces are no match for a million motivated Ukrainian fighters, a former colonel has admitted on Russia’s state television in a damning assessment of the conflict.

Mikhail Khodarenok, a Kremlin military strategist and retired air defence commander, used his platform on Russia’s most watched talk show to stress that “the whole world is against us”.

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He appealed to political leaders and the Russian public to stop taking “informational sedatives” and accept that the “situation for us will clearly get worse” as the West continued to arm determined Ukrainians with modern weapons.

"The whole world is against us," says analyst

In surprisingly frank comments which openly criticised the Kremlin’s official propaganda narratives, Khodarenok said Russia’s population had been fed lies about a lack of morale and psychological breakdowns among Ukrainian ranks

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2022-05-17 12:10:00Z
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Erdogan threatens to block Finland and Sweden from Nato - The Times

President Erdogan of Turkey has threatened to block Finland and Sweden from Nato, days after they confirmed they would seek membership.

Erdogan cited what he sees as their willingness to host Kurdish militants and opponents of his regime.

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Finnish and Swedish accession requires unanimous approval by the 30 Nato states including Turkey. Both countries said they would send diplomatic delegations to convince Ankara, but Erdogan suggested they need not bother.

“Neither of these countries have a clear, open attitude towards terrorist organisation. How can we trust them?” he said, describing Sweden as a “hatchery” for terror cells.

Turkey accuses the two Nordic nations of harbouring members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group it views as a terrorist organisation, and followers of Fethullah Gulen,

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2022-05-17 07:00:00Z
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