NATO should be ready to suspend Turkey's membership, Mark Wallace, former US Ambassador to the UN, Chief Executive Officer of the Turkish Democracy Project, and Madeleine Joelson, Executive Director of the project, write in a letter published by the Financial Times.

“Gideon Rahman (FT commentator – ed.) suggests that NATO members must be prepared to haggle, as it were, in the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul if they want Turkey’s autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to fall into line on Finland and Sweden’s Nato membership. Rachman suggests that Nato members should offer economic assistance in exchange for co-operation over the Nordic question," they noted.

The problem with this strategy is that it encourages Erdogan's bad behavior. This will encourage him to press for more concessions the next time NATO needs a unanimous vote to avert a crisis. Every concession received from the alliance will be billed as a diplomatic victory for Erdogan, helping him garner domestic support and help him win re-election next year.

As long as Erdogan knows that the members of the alliance are unwilling to take the final step of excluding Turkey, even if only temporarily, he will still have the upper hand in the negotiations.

If NATO rules were changed to allow the suspension of member states until their leaders reorient themselves to the values ​​and interests of the alliance, then Erdogan would understand the prospect of the real economic and strategic consequences of his actions.

 As Rahman points out, it was the Saudi boycott of Turkish goods, rather than the offer of economic aid, that prompted Erdogan to seek renewed ties with Saudi Arabia.

If you want to get a fair price at the Grand Bazaar, you first need to know where the exits are.