Turkey has been engaging in extensive dialogues and negotiations to legitimise the war against the Kurds and to conceal the crimes committed by Turkey and affiliated groups during this war, said political scientist Sinan Önal during an interview on Tuesday following Turkey’s acceptance of Sweden’s NATO membership.

Speaking on the Medya Haber TV’s live broadcast, Önal said what is announced as the concession ground for Turkey’s approval is basically in the trilateral memorandum signed in Madrid, implying that what Erdoğan had been trying to do is not to gain an extra concession but to secure immunity in Turkey’s war against the Kurds, especially in northeast Syria.

Önal argued that it would not be accurate to view Turkey’s approval as a great victory for Turkish diplomacy. He said that Turkey has been conducting diplomacy on NATO Article 5 since the Madrid summit. This means that in the event of an external attack on any NATO member state, all member states must help that country to repel the attack.

According to Önal, Turkey had hoped to include the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as an external enemy of Turkey within NATO, but this goal was not achieved. Instead, a counter-terrorism coordination has been established that alludes to the Kurdish freedom movement but does not explicitly mention it by name.

NATO announced on Monday that Turkey and Sweden found a “middle ground” in the implementation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s demands for the clamp down on the presence of Kurdish groups in the Nordic country, in return for ratification of the Swedish bid to join the transatlantic alliance.