Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg during the NATO Conference in Madrid on 28 June 2022. A handshake of betrayal, as Turkey accepted Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership.

One wonders, what forces have influenced Erdogan to distance himself from Russia in particular and the East in general when accepting NATO membership of the two Nordic countries against the interests of Russia.  

The Biden administration showed its support Wednesday for the potential sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, a day after Ankara raised a veto of NATO membership for Finland and Sweden.

Celeste Wallander, Assistant Secretary for Defense for International Security Affairs at Pentagon, said robust Turkish defense capabilities would strengthen NATO's defenses.

Turkey will stop its opposition to Sweden and Finland's access to the NATO alliance, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto announced on Tuesday following a discussion between leaders.

The three countries’ foreign ministers signed a trilateral memorandum that established Turkey will back their endeavor to the alliance this week during NATO’s Madrid Summit. Earlier on Tuesday, Niinisto, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Prime Minister of Sweden Magdalena Andersson met together in a conversation that was facilitated by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

Turkey’s President Erdoğan has officially withdrawn Ankara’s objection to the addition of Finland and Sweden to NATO membership, with the three countries signing a trilateral memorandum at a NATO summit in Madrid.

Turkey will support inviting Finland and Sweden into NATO at the alliance’s upcoming summit in Spain, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto announced on Tuesday after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.

The three countries signed a memorandum of understanding at the meeting, organized with the support of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

The 2022 NATO summit in Madrid, Spain is set to kick off Tuesday and run through Thursday of this week; however, US officials say they don't expected Turkey's concerns over Sweden and Finland's membership bids to be allayed.

Anniken Huitfeldt, announced last week that Norwegian citizens would be allowed to enter Turkey for six months without a passport due to a shortage of the chips required for new passports in Norway. 

In the replies below Huitfeldt’s tweet of the announcement, the frustration of Turkish citizens was easy to see. 

Looming heavily over the Tuesday through Thursday NATO summit in Madrid will be Turkey's vehement rejection of Finland and Sweden's membership bids, but it now appears President Joe Biden will use the opportunity of his trip to Europe, where's he's currently attending the G7 in Germany, to intervene with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan personally.

A Turkish court dropped charges against 26 Saudis who had been implicated in the gruesome killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Turkish media reported on Friday. 

On Friday Turkey lashed out at a series of positions the EU summit in Brussels took regarding territorial disputes with Greece in the Aegean and Mediterranean - specifically on drilling rights and Ankara's charge that Greece is "militarizing" its islands in violation of historic treaties, an accusation which the EU has not backed. This also as Turkey has been seething over Ukraine and Moldova so quickly being granted EU candidate status.