Turkey: President Erdogan asks Parliament to ratify Finland's accession to NATO

Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö in Ankara on March 17. AP - Burhan Ozbilici

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Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan finally lift their veto on Finland's accession to NATO. The decision was officially announced on Friday, March 17, during a visit by Finnish President Sauli Niinistö to Ankara. However, Turkey continues to block Sweden's accession.

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With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer

After nine months of deadlock, Finland's accession protocol to NATO has arrived in the Turkish Parliament. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced this during a press conference with his Finnish counterpart. He hoped that the text would be ratified before the presidential and legislative elections on 14th May.

The Turkish President welcomed the respect of the commitments contained in the memorandum signed in June 2022 in Madrid. The text required Finland, but also Sweden, to cooperate more with Turkey in its fight against "terrorism".

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In signing this tripartite memorandum, we affirmed the need to eliminate Turkey's legitimate security concerns. Over the past period, we have noted that Finland has taken sincere and concrete steps to fulfil its commitments. Given the progress made, I have decided to start the process of ratifying Finland's accession protocol to NATO," said Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

« Good student »

Finland is therefore presented as the "good student", as opposed to Sweden, whose accession Turkey continues to block. Recep Tayyip Erdogan reproached him for refusing to extradite "terrorists", including alleged members of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party). The Turkish president said he had sent Stockholm a list of 124 names.

Sweden regretted not having had the green light from Turkey to ratify its entry into NATO, unlike its Finnish neighbor, which now has the way wide open to enter the Atlantic Alliance. "This is a development that we did not want, but for which we were prepared," Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told a news conference.

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The important thing now for Sweden is to secure the two missing ratifications Turkey and Hungary "and to guarantee our security for as long as it takes," he said.

► READ ALSO: Turkey is preparing to lift its veto on Finland's entry into NATO without Sweden

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Read on on the same topics:

• Turkey
• Finland
• Sweden
• NATO