Last week, Mildata General Manager Mahmut Bölükbaş participated in the live broadcast of TRTWorld and answered questions about the NATO enlargement and Turkey’s stance on Sweden’s membership application within the scope of Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s visit to Turkey.

Bölükbaş answered the questions posed to him in the broadcast and shared his knowledge on the subject with the public.

The first of the questions posed to Bölükbaş is about NATO’s expansion moves. He said: ‘’NATO was established as a military pact to establish peace. In this context, it is very natural that it tends to expand when the appropriate conjuncture occurs. However, it is necessary to focus on the opposite of this argument. Why does Russia want to expand? It should be noted that Russia has returned to its claims on the former Soviet Union since the Putin administration. NATO was already concerned with establishing a peace that would prevail throughout Europe. In this context, it was in contact with all the countries of the region with the Partnership for Peace formula and included those who requested it if the conditions were appropriate. I mean, he didn’t tell anyone to come and join us. In fact, from a military point of view, NATO has grown in number of soldiers, but due to the assurance provided by the pact, the military assets of the countries have shrunk. In other words, countries were disarmed. We saw this clearly after the Ukrainian-Russian War.’’

“What will the membership of Finland and Sweden change?” The question was another topic discussed in the broadcast. Bölükbaş’s response to this question was, “First of all, it is necessary to look carefully at the world map and to analyse the historical process correctly. Of these two, Finland has a controversial relationship in the historical process as a border neighbour with the Soviet Union and Russia. Sweden’s position is more important because we are talking about a country that has not lost its neutrality in centuries of wars. We can evaluate this situation as follows. Swedish and Finnish armies are the militaries that can respond to Russia in a conventional threat environment. However, Russia has made repeated statements recently that it may use tactical-grade nuclear weapons. Against this threat, these two countries will either develop their own nuclear weapons or turn to an option that provides this protection and contributes to many other issues. In this context, it is a logical decision for both countries to prefer NATO. Because with the entry of the Balkan and Baltic countries into the NATO umbrella, only one door remained open. For NATO, the northern flank is guaranteed at the point of security of the North Atlantic. Domination is being provided in the Baltic. NATO airspace is expanding in the North.’’

C4 Defence has been handling NATO’s enlargement policies and the processes of change it has undergone for a long time in its publications and articles. C4 Defence will continue to follow the process in its future publications.