The Turkish Parliament approves Sweden's entry into NATO after twenty months of waiting

Lara Villalón Istanbul

Istanbul

Updated Tuesday, January 23, 2024-9:20 p.m.

Sweden has spent 20 months of negotiations in a tug-of-war with Ankara, for the Turkish parliament to finally approve its entry into NATO.

In a parliamentary session this Tuesday,

a majority of 287 votes in favor compared to 55 against and four abstentions

gave the green light for Sweden to become the thirty-second country that is part of the Atlantic Alliance.

The ratification has had the votes of the government party, the Islamist AKP - led by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan - as well as the support of the main opposition party, the social democratic CHP, and ultra-nationalist political formations.

"Taking into account all the concrete actions that Sweden has taken to fight terrorism and the growing understanding of Turkey's concerns about terrorism within NATO, we voted 'yes' to Sweden's candidacy," he declared during the parliamentary debate. Fuat Oktay, leader of the AKP Foreign Commission.

Turkish ratification

leaves the last step of the process in the hands of Hungary

, since all NATO countries have to approve the entry of new members.

The Hungarian Prime Minister,

Viktor Orban

, spoke on the issue this Tuesday, extending an invitation to his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson, to

negotiate his accession

in the coming days.

The Swedish Foreign Minister

rejected Hungary's call

, stating that "there is no reason to negotiate."

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine

in February 2022, Sweden and Finland

abandoned decades of military non-alignment

and quickly applied to join NATO.

His proposal was welcomed by all members of the Alliance except Turkey and Hungary.

Although these two countries

ratified Finland's membership in April last year

,

Sweden's path has been much longer

.

Hungary vetoed its entry, ensuring that Stockholm has a very "hostile" attitude towards its government and is critical of the erosion of the rule of law that the country is suffering.

While Türkiye's refusal was a more complex issue.

Turkish President

Recep

Tayyip Erdogan

complained that Sweden was refusing to export weapons to Turkey

and accused the country of

harboring Kurdish political groups

that Ankara considers "terrorist organizations."

Due to Turkey's refusal, Sweden, Finland, along with some NATO countries such as Canada and the Netherlands took measures to relax arms export policies to Turkey.

Stockholm,

for its part, also

passed a new anti-terrorism law

, imposing restrictions on the right to asylum and freedom of expression, in an attempt to get closer to Ankara's demands.

The session of the Turkish Parliament.NECATI SAVASEFE

These negotiations dragged on for months and were interrupted by

protests against Turkey

and against NATO that occurred in Sweden, in which copies of the Koran

, the Muslim holy book,

were burned .

Thousands of people protested in Istanbul and Ankara against the burning of Korans and several parliamentarians announced that they would never vote in favor of Sweden joining NATO.

Although Erdogan's party, the Islamist AKP, has the parliamentary majority, several small formations of his political alliance were against Sweden's entry into NATO and even proposed that Turkey leave the Atlantic Alliance.

In parallel, Turkey linked Sweden's membership to negotiations with other members of the Alliance and asked the United States to

relent on the sale of F-16 fighter jets

.

Ankara has been hoping for years to be able to renew its military air fleet with American combat aircraft, but Washington has refused on several occasions, causing tensions within the Alliance.

Distrust between the two reached

its

peak when Turkey

acquired s-400 anti-missile systems from Russia

, which Washington considers incompatible with the security of the Alliance.

"As president, I have done my part, but I also have my expectations. The United States should approve it (the sale of F-16) in its Congress, so that we can take these measures simultaneously," Erdogan said in December.

On a visit to Istanbul, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested that Congress could approve the sale if Turkey finally ratified Sweden's entry into NATO.