The Turkish parliament began examining Sweden’s NATO accession protocol on Tuesday, before a crucial vote expected in the evening, the end of twenty months of negotiations between Ankara and Stockholm.
Turkey is, with Hungary, the last NATO member to still block Sweden’s entry into the Atlantic Alliance, at whose door the Nordic country has been knocking since May 2022. President Erdogan’s main ally, Devlet Bahçeli, thanks to whom the head of state has an absolute majority in parliament, has assured that his deputies will vote in favor of Swedish membership, auguring a favorable outcome.
Turkey accuses Sweden of leniency towards Kurdish activists taking refuge on its soil
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban invited his Swedish counterpart to Budapest on Tuesday to try to resolve their differences. The Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs said in response that his country had “no reason” to currently negotiate with Hungary.
To satisfy Ankara’s demands, Sweden, on the other hand, reformed its Constitution and adopted a new anti-terrorism law, with Turkey accusing Sweden of leniency towards Kurdish militants who had taken refuge on its soil, some of whom were considered terrorists by Ankara.
Sweden had submitted its application in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the same time as Finland, admitted last April. At the beginning of December, Erdogan added as a condition for Ankara’s ratification the “simultaneous” approval by the American Congress of the sale of F-16 fighter planes to Turkey.