Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced this Friday that the country has finally agreed to ratify the accession protocol of Finland here NATOso that the Turkish Parliament now has a free hand to start the process in question.
Erdogan’s words came during a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, who is visiting the Turkish capital, Ankara. Both have met to discuss the future of the Atlantic Alliance, although it was already expected that Erdogan would finally announce this week his intention to ratify the protocol.
“We care about the strong and continued support given by Finland in relation to the accession of Turkey to the European Union“, said the Turkish president, who has specified that he hopes that NATO “will be even stronger with Finland”. “It will play an active role in maintaining global security and stability”has asserted, according to information from the Anatolia news agency.
In addition, he has expressed his wish that the process to approve Finland’s accession go ahead in the Turkish Parliament before the elections scheduled for May 14.
Accession of Sweden
Regarding the accession of Sweden, Erdogan has reiterated that the talks “continue” taking into account the “principles of the alliance“ and he recalled that a list of “120 terrorists” was delivered to the Swedish authorities without any changes for now.
“We have given them a list with the names of 120 terrorists. We have told them to hand them over to us. It is not possible for us to address this issue with Sweden in a positive way if they do not hand them over,” he asserted before pointing out that “how things progress in the framework of accession It will depend directly on the measures Sweden takes.”
He also stressed that in Finland, unlike in Sweden, “there have been no protests backed by terrorist organizations.” “That is why we separated one country from the other and we have shown our position on the matter,” he added.
“As long as we continue to see negative measures towards Turkey in the framework of the fight against terrorismwe will be willing to take any action regardless of its consequences“, has underlined.
Following Erdogan’s announcement, Finland has moved one step closer to becoming a NATO member state ahead of Sweden, who the Turkish authorities continue to demand to meet their demands and cooperate in the fight against terrorist groups. kurds.
The entry of Sweden and Finland into the Atlantic Alliance depends on the approval of the 30 Member States. Of these, 28 countries have already completed the procedures, in such a way that only Hungary and Turkey remain to complete the ratification process.
This same Friday, the Hungarian Parliament has confirmed that the 27th of March Parliament will vote precisely on Finland’s entry into NATO, a measure announced just after Erdogan’s position on the matter was known.