ANALYSIS OF SWEDEN'S ATTEMPT TO JOIN THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE IN TURKEY

A PERSPECTIVE ON DIPLOMACY IN DISASTER SITUATIONS

Abstract

After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Sweden to hand over the Kurdistan Workers' Party (Partiya Karkêren Kurdistan, PKK) in order to secure Turkey's approval to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), tensions between the two countries exploded once again. Several weeks after the tension heated up, Turkey was abruptly hit by a catastrophic earthquake on February 6, 2023, leaving the country instantly, just a few weeks after the incendiary incident. The Turkish government then proclaimed a level 4 emergency and promptly requested assistance from other countries. The aim of the article is to shed light on how Sweden used the Turkish earthquake to ratify its NATO membership. To answer the problems raised by this scientific literature, this research employs qualitative descriptive methodologies, keeping in mind the idea of disaster diplomacy. This study includes information from various literary sources, including journal publications, government websites and news items from various online media. The results revealed that Sweden used systematic disaster diplomacy to its advantage, offering various aids to the victims of the earthquake in the hope that Turkey would postpone the ratification of its NATO membership.