The Turkish Parliament ratified Finland’s entry into NATO on Thursday, ending months of blockade by Ankara of this expansion of the Atlantic Alliance.
The corresponding document was adopted with the votes in favor of the 276 deputies present, with which nothing now prevents Finland’s accession, since Turkey was the only country of the 30 partners that had not yet ratified it, while it continues to block the aspiration of Sweden to enter the military pact.
Both the government deputies and those of the opposition who intervened in the debate on the law that defines Finland’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as appropriate, “welcomed” the new partner.
Ahmet Kamil Erozan, a member of the opposition Good Party, criticized the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for treating the process of this expansion of the military alliance as a matter of domestic politics.
“Most likely, Sweden’s accession will also be approved after the elections,” he said, referring to the general elections called for May 14.
Only the pro-Kurdish opposition Popular Democracy (HDP) party abstained from participating in the vote due to its position of fundamental rejection of all military and arms agreements, according to Hisyar Ozsoy, one of its deputies.
On the other hand, Oszoy accused the Government of having blackmailed Finland and Sweden, and of forcing Sweden to act against its own laws to deport the Kurdish asylum seekers in that country.
The result of today’s vote was as expected since Erdogan gave his go-ahead to Finland earlier this month, after meeting his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinistö, in Ankara.
Both Erdogan and other Turkish officials, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlut Çavusoglu, affirm that Sweden continues not to comply with the demands of the Turkish government established in a Memorandum signed last summer on the sidelines of the NATO summit held in Madrid.
Thus, they continue to block the entry of Sweden, considering that this country does not fulfill its promises to prevent the activities of organizations that Turkey considers terrorist.
Ankara accuses Stockholm of providing protection to members of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party and demands their extradition before ratifying the country’s NATO membership.
Finland and Sweden, hitherto neutral, asked to join the alliance last year after seeing their security threatened after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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