Turkey ratifies Finland’s entry into NATO: the last step for the accession of the Nordic country

Finland has seen how this Thursday the last hurdle was raised for its adhesion, after almost a year of tug of war, to the I’LL TAKE. The Turkish Parliament, after months of dodging the vote, has finally ratified the entry into the transatlantic organization of the Nordic country.

All the parliaments of NATO member countries must give their approval to the entry of a new State into the organization. Until this week there were only two left to do it: the one of Hungary and the one of Türkiye. The Hungarian Parliament approved the Finnish entry on Monday; the Turkish, this Thursday. Finland thus becomes the 31st NATO country. Sweden, which started its process together with its neighboring country, meanwhile, will have to wait.

“Some European countries support terrorist groups that threaten the security of our State. And with the aim of increasing our national security, we are discussing these days the entry of Finland and Sweden to our organization. We believe that Finland has taken concrete steps to respect our agreements. But Sweden has not taken all the steps we expect,” the Turkish parliamentarian said during the debate prior to the vote. Ismail Ozdemirmember of the government coalition.

The Swedish case goes to part. According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Sweden has become in recent years a “nest of terrorists and a danger to Turkish national security”. Erdogan, above all, refers to the fact that the Nordic country is home to exiles and sympathizers of the Kurdish-Turkish guerrilla of the PKKat war with Türkiye since the 1980s. Both the European Union as USA The US and Turkey consider this group —now very weak and with almost no capacity for action in Turkish territory— as a terrorist.

disagreements and choices

During their negotiations, Erdogan explained, Türkiye has delivered a list of 124 people to Sweden to be deported to the Anatolian country. These deportations have not taken place, since the Swedish justice has considered that these people, in the case of being sent to Turkey, would not have a fair trial.

Thus, according to the experts, the Turkish Parliament is not expected – the Hungarian one has not done so either, alleging that Stockholm mira a Budapest “over the shoulder” — ratify Sweden’s NATO membership until after presidential and parliamentary elections Turks next May 14. Erdogan, analysts consider, seeks to show himself as a strong and tough man at his lowest moment of popularity during his more than 20 years in office: according to the vast majority of polls, Erdogan would lose the election to the main candidate of the Turkish opposition, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

“We have our Red lines in the fight against terrorismand we delivered to Sweden a list with 124 terrorists that we want them to be extradited to our country. But they haven’t. The Swedish Prime Minister can be very good personOf course, but what matters to us are the concrete steps. And they have not given them,” Erdogan said last week in Ankara during the visit of his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinistö.