Turkish parliamentary commission approves Finland’s NATO membership protocol
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The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Parliament approved the ratification of the protocol on Finland’s membership in NATO, transmits TV channel TRT.
It is specified that the document was sent to the parliament by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It is expected that it must be approved by Parliament before March 26. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akcapar, bilateral relations between Turkey and Finland “are developing in a positive way.”
Now the republic’s entry into the alliance must be ratified by all NATO member countries, then Finland will be invited to join NATO by the Secretary General of the organization. The country’s government noted that Finland intends to join NATO at the same time as Sweden “as soon as possible.”
Finland applied for NATO membership on May 18, 2022, and Sweden did so at the same time. At the moment, only two countries of the NATO bloc – Hungary and Turkey – have not ratified the protocols on the accession of states to the alliance. March 17 Erdogan informedthat the country is ready to vote in parliament on its ratification before the general elections in the country on May 14, 2023. At the same time, the Turkish leader added, Ankara is not going to vote for joining the Swedish alliance.
According to the signed agreements, Stockholm and Helsinki promised Ankara to investigate and stop any funding and recruitment activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), recognized as terrorist in Turkey. In addition, Sweden and Finland pledged to consider Turkey’s requests for the extradition of suspected terrorists, while Stockholm separately announced the tightening of anti-terrorism legislation in the country.
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