ANKARA, (Reuters) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent to Parliament on Monday a bill approving Sweden’s membership in NATO, his services announced, a move welcomed by Stockholm for which it is a matter of one of the final obstacles to its entry into the Transatlantic Alliance, requested in May 2022.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised last July during a NATO summit to submit this text to Turkish elected officials on October 1, when parliamentary work resumes, after having opposed it for months, accusing Sweden of shelter Kurdish nationals considered “terrorists”.
However, since the reopening of Parliament, Turkish representatives have continued to repeat that Stockholm must take more measures to fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), declared illegal by Ankara, so that Sweden’s membership in the NATO is ratified.
Via the social network She did not give details.
However, no date has yet been set for a parliamentary vote. The text must first be added to the program of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, which must give prior approval for a vote in plenary session.
Sweden requested at the same time as Finland to join NATO following Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, launched in February 2022, marking a historic security shift. Finland became the 31st member of the Alliance last April, while Sweden’s candidacy remained blocked by Turkey and Hungary.
In the past, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has notably linked the question of Sweden’s membership in NATO to the delivery by the United States of F-16 fighter planes and to the reopening of discussions with the European Union. on Turkey’s entry into the bloc. (Reporting Tuvan Gumrukcu and Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara, Simon Johnson in Stockholm; French version Jean Terzian, editing by Tangi Salaün)
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