Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan approved the Turkish Parliament’s decision to ratify Helsinki’s application for Finland’s NATO membership. The corresponding decree of Erdogan was placed in the bulletin Resmi Gazete. REN TV reports.
The Turkish parliament supported the protocol on Helsinki’s entry into the alliance on March 31. 276 deputies of the Turkish Parliament supported the approval of the ratification.
“The ratification of the protocol on Finland’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Brussels on July 5, 2022, was deemed expedient,” the text of the decree reads.
Finland and Sweden applied to join the Alliance in the summer of 2022. Since then, 28 of the 30 member countries of the bloc have ratified the treaties on the admission of the Nordic states. Hungary and Türkiye blocked the process. The latter put forward an extensive list of demands, including the extradition of members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party hiding in Scandinavia and considered terrorists in Turkey. The process dragged on until January. Later, Hungary nevertheless approved Finland’s application to join NATO.
On January 21, the day of the planned visit of the Minister of Defense to Turkey for negotiations on joining NATO, Swedish radical activist lawyer Rasmus Paludan held a rally with the burning of the Koran. The activist promised to burn one holy book a day until Erdogan approves the country’s membership in the alliance. Turkey assessed this step extremely negatively, the process of Sweden’s entry into NATO was suspended and postponed indefinitely. Finland said it was ready to join the alliance separately from Sweden.
In February, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he had a negative attitude towards Sweden’s entry into NATO. Later it was reported that Turkey might “look positively” at Finland’s membership in NATO if Helsinki considers the option of a separate application from Sweden to join the alliance. Finland, in turn, said it was ready to join the alliance separately from Sweden.
On March 21, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Finland might become a full-fledged member of the alliance even before the parliamentary elections in Turkey, that is, before May 14.
On March 30, the Turkish parliament approved a bill to ratify Finland’s accession to NATO.
