As thousands of signatures were gathered in more than a hundred provinces and regions, the Turkish
Vatan Party's Secretary-General, Ozgur Bursli, declared Monday the beginning of a widespread campaign to leave NATO in Turkey's major cities. Bursli noted that the Turkish people are protesting NATO in growing numbers.

"The Turkish people are rising up against NATO! Our prayers, in a short time, like the wind, flew to more than 100 provinces and regions, collected thousands of signatures, and won the support of our citizens," said Bursli as quoted by Aydinlik newspaper.

NATO'DAN ÇIKALIM, bayram gibi bayram yapalım :)
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Kampanyamızda ilk haftayı geride bıraktık.
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Örgütlerimiz kısa sürede 100'ün üzerinde il ve ilçe merkezinde rüzgar gibi esti, binlerce imza topladı, yurttaşlarımızla buluştu.

Gördüğümüz gerçek: Türk Milleti NATO'ya isyan ediyor! pic.twitter.com/S0VNKPZeZ8

— Özgür Bursalı (@ozgurbursali) July 9, 2022

Earlier, Dogu Perincek, Chairman of the Vatan party stated that the party intended to recommend to parliament that the Turkish government withdraws from NATO. He also argued that the policy against the alliance is important for the country's economic future.

The Vatan party actively supports Turkey's close collaboration with the Eurasian space and urges Ankara to accept the reunification of Crimea with Russia despite the fact that it is not represented in the Grand National Assembly (Parliament) of Turkey.

Genel Başkanımız Dr. Doğu Perinçek:

"Türkiye tarihine baktığımız zaman NATO tarihi kanlı bir tarih. Vatan Partisi, "NATO'dan Çıkalım" kampanyası başlatmıştır." pic.twitter.com/4XN8qYpTty

— Vatan Partisi (@Vatan_Partisi) July 2, 2022

The diverging interests of NATO and Turkey

On July 3rd, and upon Ukraine's request, Turkey detained a Russian ship suspected of carrying Ukrainian grain. On July 7th, the detained ship has been returned to Russian territorial waters, a Turkish source told AFP. Turkey’s decision to return the ship to Moscow has drawn angry condemnations from Kiev.

NATO had been actively attempting to isolate Russia since the beginning of its operation in Ukraine. However, Turkey, since the start, balanced a relationship between the two great powers based on its interests with the two. The country has been a member of NATO since 18 February 1952, and yet it has had a multitude of fruitful agreements with both Russia and China at times when the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance had its deep feuds with the two. 

Another diversion in the relationship between NATO and Turkey had to do with the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO given their ties to the PKK and Turkey's refusal to adopt their bid. 

Sweden has made a list of 10 Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members to extradite to Turkey following the signature of a memorandum in Madrid, Turkish broadcaster TRT Haber reported on Sunday.

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said earlier in the week that Ankara had sent a written request to Finland and Sweden to extradite members of the PKK and the organization of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen(FETO) that Turkey deems a terrorist.

The Swedish Ministry of Justice told RIA Novosti that there are no official documents related to Ankara's demand to extradite the members of organizations deemed terrorists in this Republic. Between 2019 and 2022, the Swedish government approved three of Ankara's 16 extradition applications.

Read more: Turkey gains US support for the purchase of F-16 fighter jets