[lawn]

That's a simplification, and there are a bunch of other reasons.

The dictator Erdogan wanting to pressure Sweden and NATO for instance.

[actionfromafar]

And appear like a strong and mighty leader in the May elections. Distract from tanking the economy and encouraging corruption. I could be arrested for saying such things, if I was in Turkey.

[tephra]

The most important reasons IMHO are (1) domestic election and (2) wanting to get a hold of some F-16s for their air force.

[red-iron-pine]

Which the US would have been willing to give... if they didn't cozy up to the Russians for S-300 and S-400s.

They also wanted F-35s, not just F-16s. That's not one to sell unless you're 100% confident they won't copy it for their own domestic production, or sell it to, say, the Russians. And modern Turkey is looking a little shaky in that regard (no, not an earthquake joke).

[sahinyanlik]

So you are telling Turkey bought s-400 out of nowhere? US never become true ally of Turkey. And your F-35s reasoning is not right as well. From the beginning Turkey is a part of alliance. But now they afraid Turkey to sell f-35 to Russia?

[Tommstein]

> So you are telling Turkey bought s-400 out of nowhere?

No, from Russia.

> But now they afraid Turkey to sell f-35 to Russia?

No, they're afraid of what Russia's S-400 that Turkey bought might covertly reveal to Russia about the F-35.

Turkey had the choice between the F-35 and the S-400. It chose the S-400 instead of the F-35. It has no one to blame for that decision but Turkey.

[BurningFrog]

There are other factors for sure, but without Sweden's recent pro kurdish policy swing, my guess is that both Sweden and Finland would have joined today.