That’s Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan saying no to waving through Sweden’s application to join NATO. To step things back a bit… It was in mid-2022 that Sweden and Finland broke with their longstanding neutrality policies, deciding to apply for membership to the great big military alliance citing the fragile security situation in Europe. Turkey’s leader has been against it from the get-go, saying they shelter “representatives of terrorist organisations”, including the Kurdish Workers’ Party (aka the PKK). Tensions flared in Sweden on the weekend when an anti-Islam protest was held outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm – and Erdoğan said authorities should have shut it down. New members of NATO need unanimous support from member countries, but with Turkey firmly offside, it’s tricky. Other NATO nations have been supportive of the Nordic nations’ applications, saying it would help make Europe safer.