Turkey squeezes Sweden for millions in aid for rail project

If Sweden refuses, Turkey will veto the country joining NATO.

Sweden has placed itself completely in the hands of the Turkish despot Erdogan because of possible joining NATO. First Sweden had to extradite Kurds to Turkey, now it has to help realize a Turkish railroad project with a contribution of several hundred million. If not, Turkey will block Sweden's NATO accession.

The policy of Turkish despot Erdogan's has been a resounding failure. Economically, the country is in the doldrums, galloping inflation is making the Turkish lira worthless, tourism has long since ceased to bring the necessary money into the country, and politically, Erdogan has isolated Turkey.

Everywhere the country grinds in the gears. The only way for the autocrat to remain in power is to keep resistance in the country as low as possible with more and more repressive measures and more and more arrests and police violence.

Of course, no one from abroad wants to invest voluntarily in such a country. But these investments are necessary. If only for the reason of creating projects against unemployment. In such cases, despots are particularly fond of large-scale transport and infrastructure projects.

Just as the expansion of highways was once used as a project against unemployment, Erdogan is trying to do the same with railroad construction.

However, Turkey cannot manage this task on its own. Volunteers could not be found, so it is good to have a little leverage. In this case namely the desire of the Swedish government to join NATO.

The Turkish ultimatum: either the Swedish Export Credit Agency releases funds to support rail construction in Turkey to the tune of almost half a billion Euros, or else Turkey vetoes Sweden's entry into NATO.

It is "kindly expected that the Swedish government and EKN will continue to support the project," the Turkish government representative wrote in an e-mail to the Swedish government.